Architecton (2024)

[bunniefuu]

This one is beautiful.

Oh, yes, it is.

- Is this the last time?

- Yes, the last lap.

I'm coming too,

I'll take the round ones.

Ok, let's choose the position.

Yes.

- We have to find the center.

- Let's try here.

- Right here is the center, yes?

- Yes.

Let's do it gently first,

so we can see how it looks.

Yes. Okay.

Let's make, I don't know ...

Somewhat ...

A little more.

So that it comes ...

it comes up to here.

Up to here?

Yes, a little more, and here.

Here.

Here. A little more.

Let's take the ...

This is too big.

Too big? A little smaller?

Here?

Here, like that.

Is there a mallet?

Gently, slowly.

Now here, down here.

It has to be something ...

that goes like this.

Up to here.

Then it should be of these dimensions,

more or less.

Shall we try to draw it?

Yes, how do we draw it?

Well, again with that stick.

- It's a little chilly, isn't it?

- My hands are frozen.

- Shall we try to draw it like this?

- Yes, let's put that stick here, Davide.

We'll put it here as a reference.

- How many sticks do we have? Four?

- Four.

Let's put one of them there.

One here, Davide.

Another one here.

One here.

And another one,

which we already have here.

We'll put the four stones

on the four points of the compass.

So one ... at each point.

The round stones, the black ones.

The black ones.

Let's try ...

how deep to sink them.

- Shall we do something like this?

- Yes, even a little bit deeper.

- A little bit deeper?

- Yes.

Yes, because ...

It should stay there for a lifetime.

Oh, really?

Beautiful.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Here comes the snow.

Beautiful.

Beautiful that it's starting to snow,

isn't it?

Ah, really, yes.

- Did it come out of the ground?

- Yes, yes.

What is it?

Could it be ... It looks like a ...

What could it be?

Of course, finding a circle

while making a circle ...

It's meant to be.

It's something that has been

prepared ... for years.

Now, I even feel embarrassed

to be inside the circle.

Yes, beautiful.

Finding a circle while making the circle.

Watch out.

It's a hard one, isn't it?

A bit.

It doesn't have a weak point.

A circle.

Leave ...

it ...

be.

Try this one.

Now, we have to pick

a round stone for this point.

Yes.

I'll just leave it here.

We are almost halfway!

Now comes the hardest part.

- Are we doing well, Architect?

- Good.

There are some

that are a little too big.

It's snowing.

What a beautiful surprise today.

Who knows if there will be snow or not

in years to come.

In the mountains,

there will be a beautiful ...

a beautiful disaster.

- Architect, are you okay?

- I'm getting all wet ...

Now ...

Let's lay the last stone.

We're almost ready.

You have to choose it.

This is the most beautiful one,

we put it in the North.

- No, in the West.

- In the West.

Good.

- Beautiful one.

- Beautiful one.

So we're putting it here.

It was meant to be.

Done.

Perfect.

The last one getting in here is me.

I beg your pardon, Architect?

I will be the last man

who enters the circle.

Okay.

This is a magic circle.

Because to make a circle like that,

there is simply no need.

It has no practicality.

All right.

As soon as Davide arrives,

we load those things.

Yes, let's load this stuff.

Perfect.

The last man who came in here.

Only the dog,

Ugo, can get in.

Yes, the dogs can enter.

- The horses as well.

- The horses as well.

The man backs down.

It's all cut off.

Who knows ... what kind of ...

technology they used?

It seems like here

they made a straight cut.

Hi.

Hi, welcome, welcome!

- Abdul?

- Welcome.

- Abdul?

- Abdul.

- It is written here.

- Abdul Afi.

You?

You cleaned everything?

English, Franais, no.

Welcome, welcome.

Are you an architect?

- No.

- No.

- Which is your profession?

- 30 years here.

- 30 years.

- I started in 1993.

With a ...

Yes, cleaning. 30 years here.

Clean, clean.

And why you did it?

What why?

- Pourquoi? Why?

- Pourquoi?

Franais, English, no, no.

Thank you, thank you.

Here you have to clean ... to clean.

Come, come, Sir.

Come, look.

It's very heavy work.

Look. Five meters by five meters.

You have to clean all this now.

Big work. Really impressive.

L, XL.

Yes, XL.

Thousand tons,

thousand and six hundred tons.

Abdul, these are big columns?

There are three stones in Baalbek.

Here are number four and five.

All of them for Baalbek.

The Romans were finishing Baalbek.

Just here.

- And those are Byzantine tombs.

- And tomb.

- Byzantine. Forty tombs.

- The graves.

But it's detached from the ground.

Do you know how they cut it?

And they cut it like that?

- Laser cut it.

- Yes.

I don't know how it happened.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,

21, 22, 23, 24, 25,

26, 27, 28, 29, 30,

31, 32, 33, 34, 35,

36, 37, 38, 39, 40,

41, 42, 43, 44, 45,

46, 47, 48, 49, 50.

This is what we call progress.

I'm not blaming architects.

I guess it's a question to all of us.

Why people knew

how to make buildings

which lasted thousands of years?

And why we build,

we are making buildings

which last 40 years?

And why ...

I believe that all people

who are not architects,

they have the same question.

Why we build ugly, boring buildings

if we know how to build beautiful ones?

It's a very deep question for me.

And it's bringing me back to the decisions

that I never took in my life.

Right now we are doing

a skyscraper in concrete.

- Where?

- In Milan.

And I'm ashamed of it.

I am asking my colleagues

to do in a way

that we are not responsible.

Because ...

Because it's just ...

it's just one

of these skyscrapers,

more or less tall

that we build in concrete

and that everybody does.

This is just ...

another box

in the center of Milan.

It is not symbolic at all,

it has no meaning.

And this will last

for 40 years, 50 years.

But I hate concrete

because concrete is arid.

Its aridity.

Nothing will grow up

in a concrete building.

And it doesn't belong to nature.

But do you think we will ever,

ever solve the problem

of cement, of concrete?

Yes, I think that this is possible.

This is possible, for example,

with something that is not,

is not ...

it doesn't become garbage

when it is done.

That becomes ...

It comes back to life again.

Everything that is dead,

is dead.

Everything that has not fertility inside

is dead.

And it'll stay there ugly forever.

Everything that is fertile

and grows and develops

and comes back to a new life,

this is what we need.

And if we want to survive

in such a huge number on this planet,

we have to question ourselves:

what we built

that will nourish the planet

and what we built

that is destroying the planet?

This will be part of

the evolution of the world

in the next centuries.

But if I listen to you,

then ideally,

we have to replicate

your "circle of life"

in the center

of all our cities, right?

Yes.

It's a beautiful idea, but ...

will people listen to you?

For example, your own family,

will they keep this circle

in your own garden after you?

Will they keep it forever?

Maybe yes, maybe not.

Because ...

to be conscious

that we have limited resources,

and we have limited

possibilities of surviving

that was not like that until now.

This is the big change

of a paradigm

that we have to produce

in our mind.

We have to find out

a new idea of beauty,

a new idea of ...

ambitions that we can achieve,

and we need to achieve.

And architecture

is just a way to think

about how we live,

how we behave.

There is a famous sentence

that we say,

when we design something,

we do not design only products

or buildings or spaces,

but we design

the behavior of people.