P. Schumacher speaks of a «seamless fluidity akin to natural systems.» There is a fundamental difference in how an architectural form correlates with nature. If parametricism and bionics in many of their searches follow the path of maximum similarity and, in fact, literal copying and non–symbolic reproduction of biological forms in their external fluidity and curvilinear complexity, and sometimes a certain kind of invertebrate forms, then Antiquity is characterized by a symbolic vision. The symbol does not necessarily strictly resemble the prototype, the symbol may be different, but at the same time represent the prototype. A symbol is a manifestation of one, which is hierarchically greater, in the other, hierarchically smaller. Thus, the Greek peripter has no literal counterpart in nature, and at the same time it represents an ordered cosmos. It symbolically depicts the universe, outwardly having a philosophically different form.
Moving away from the binary scheme of «primitive classical and modernist form» – «flowing seamless intricate complex parametric form», in the following discussion we will outline an exit to the aesthetics of a dialectically organized form combining classically clear forms and modern complex geometry, without «entanglement», which is uncomfortable for a person’s psychological sense of self8, and depressing similarities with certain types of biological forms (such as forms of insects, invertebrates, internal organs, arteries, etc.)
The symbol expresses, reveals the prototype. In the word «revealing», one can feel the shape of a ray: it is a ray of light passing through other medium. In «folding», one can see a bend. A «fold» is a logical figure that brings a certain variety to a conditional uniformity. Discrete elements are absorbed by it, merged into continuity. «The «fold» does not tolerate gaps» [41, 600].
Here we can recall the antinomies of Father Pavel Florensky – examples of precisely thought gaps. The first such gap is the ontological difference between the Creator and creature in theism. In this context, the concepts of «seamless» and «fluid», which do not tolerate discontinuities, correlate with pantheism, for which being is both the cosmos and the absolute, which are consubstantially generating each other. The symbol is present, when there is an ontological abyss between the Creator and created world with a completely different nature.
Meaning can be expressed in words, sounds, forms, etc. The leading meaningful role in A. F. Losev’s philosophy is given to the word. It originates in the Gospel of John and patristic thought. St. Gregory of Nyssa emphasized that man is a verbal being9. Hence, let’s formulate the fundamental principle of the updated architectural propaedeutics: The word has a leading role, and it has generative power. Since any architectural form is not only perceived by the senses, but also described in words and concepts, it is inextricably linked with them in our perception. While reflecting over architectural forms, the word can come not only afterwards as an architectural and art criticism discourse, and not only be «parallel» to the design process, but also be the primary source of architectural creativity. The author has pedagogical experience in applying this approach that has shown good results in revealing the creative architectural imagination of schoolchildren and students. And here we fundamentally disagree with the idea of the «secondariness» of the word for the architectural development of children, expressed by D.L. Melodinsky: «Decisive importance should be given to the development of spatial imagination and thinking. This form of thinking, different from the abstract one, is capable of conjuring up images in the mind, manipulating them without words [italics mine Yu.P.], and seeing a special language in the spatial characteristics of the objective world of forms that carries the meanings contained in them» [42, 220]. We see the danger of modern visual culture, which today’s children grow up on, precisely in its «wordlessness, unverbal character«, its desire to be autonomous from verbal thinking and «manipulate images without words.»