The Helicoidal Skyscraper

Leonurdo,Vol. 3, pp. 195-197. Pergamon Press 1970. Printed in Great Britain THE HELICOIDAL SKYSCRAPER Manfredi 6. Nicoletti* Fig. 1. General view of ‘The Helicoidal Skyscraper’ (model). (Copyright by M. Nicoletti, Rome, 1968.) My architectural philosophy can be summarized in three principles:continuity, openness and symbolization . Today, there is no phenomenon, including beauty, that can be evaluated by itself. Architecture is acquiring a meaning only through its interaction with the evolving environment. A multiplicity of relationships is enlarging the limits of architecture to include the surroundings, now understood as a * Architect living at Cavalieri Residence, 90Via Cadlolo, 00136Rome, Italy. (Received6 November 1969.) continuum. Such a totality is not only made of buildingsand nature but also of manyunforeseeable or aleatory events, such as posters,noise and traffic, that people, consciously or not, bring into daily life. For Leon Battista Alberti, architecture was like a musical composition to which nothing could be added or subtracted without altering the perfection of its conception. For many of us, the very purpose of architecture isto mold an ambiencewhose everchanging character is a sympathetic reflection of 195 196 Manfred C. Nicoletti Fig. 2. Drtoil ciew of”The Helicoidal Skyscraper’ (model). (Copyright by M. Nicoletti, Rome, 1968.) evolving social life. Such is the continirity we search for. Open or evolutionary planning searches for an order that uses the aleatory events as a provocative stimulus to the imagination. Openness implies the discovery of those domains of silence, so pregnant with unexpected voices, where the act of planning stops to giveway to the freedom of individual expression . An act of expression has a twofold character. We express ourselves through our actions and we are also expressed by the symbols that carry the image of our ‘collective soul’. Present day architecture sadly lacks symbolic significance. We do not have and we cannot have for the multidirectional quality of our culture those architectural symbols like the arch, the dome and the column, which by themselves were able to represent a civilization. But we must break loose from the architecture of anonymity that separates us from our environment. We need symbols and we must find appropriate ones for different situations, in the way that our language is developing a posteriori. Technology is today the most important element of our culture. From technology we expect a new welfare not only in material but also in spiritual terms. The explosions of our cities require drastic solutions; great concentrations of people must be combined with an increased respect forthe individual as a person. Very large structures-based upon an intelligent use of technology-offer a valid solution to this problem. If their conception unites rigour of execution with sensitivity, then mega-structures will become effective urban symbols for us. In this way, we may be able to revive, in modern terms, the creative spirit of the European middle ages, whereby the architect, guided and supported by popular consent, provided structures for public use-the market, the cathedral, the city hall-the symbolic images of the community. The remainder of the city was, in the main, designed and built by the citizens themselves. The variegated humanness of the medieval city was thus an expression of civic vitality. The ‘Helicoidal Skyscraper’ is conceived for a large, active and expanding city, such as, for instance, New York. This half-a-kilometer high building has the potentiality of providing a new symbol for the metropolis of today (cf. Figs. 1, 2 and 3). The ‘Helicoidal Skyscraper’ is shaped to give a new and rational solution to the two most important problems connected with very high inhabited structures and their economic viability. These problems are: 1. Minimum resistance to wind forces, in order to achieve a sufficient rigidity at the top of the Notes: The Helicoidal Skyscraper 197 2. Fig. 3. Detail view of ‘TheHelicoidal Skyscraper’ (model). (Copyright by M. Nicoletti, Rome, 1965.) structure to minimize oscillations and to prevent danger of resonance. Maximum exploitation of structural materials under various conditions of stress, in order to achieve the most favourable economic balance between structural design and usable space. The- structure of the ‘Helicoidal Skyscraper’ is based upon the separation of tension and compression stresses, thus permitting efficient exploitation of...