Paolo Portoghesi, I ponti di Borromini
Academy of Architecture
“This evening, to avoid boring you with familiar matters, I will talk about Borromini as a bridge builder, though physically he never built any. To understand the sense in which the word ‘bridge’ is to be understood, I will give the definition that a philosopher gave, which I will have occasion to speak of again. ‘The bridge rises light and powerful above the river. It not only connects two banks that already exist. The connection established by the bridge firstly causes the two banks to appear as banks. It is the bridge that properly opposes one to the other. The one bank is detached from and opposed to the other by virtue of the bridge. The banks then do not simply bound the river as the nondescript edges of dry land. With the two banks, the bridge each time brings one and the other expanse of the surrounding landscape. It brings the river, the banks and the surrounding land into reciprocal closeness’. The banks that Borromini’s bridges distinguish and connect are many. Those we will talk about are six: the North and the South of Europe; decoration and the architectural organism; the forms of architecture and their meanings; composition and decomposition as a design method; virtual and real; architecture and life” (Paolo Portoghesi).