Abstract
This thesis analyzes the tense and intense relationship that occurs between three houses,designed by Jørn Utzon for him and his family,and the horizon. The arising prospect not limited to the physical realm, but actually aspires to understand the House which is on the horizon of his life and his work as an architect. We are interested in the house as idea ,as laboratory test of the architectural practice,as true core of architecture. And as the place where you can find the elements that identify it, and work with them, again and again, in a continuing review of the discipline itself. The starting point of the analysis is the physical condition that determines these houses, and other outstanding works of the architect, based on a selected position of the building on the ground. And a special relationship between its horizontal elements (floor and ceiling), compressing the space on its vertical axis. The visual vectors appear to be driven hard between the two limits. The view projected in this way reaches the horizon line. Unwavering tension is set between the house and the horizon characterizing the place. The unequivocal will of Utzon to face horizon directly as an architect and inhabitant, the line where converge heaven and earth (the sea on three case studies), allows us to establish other associations between these two categories. The horizon is the limit of our visual perception and, therefore, is directly associated with our human condition and its own limitations. lt is clear that underlies the architect’s mind an attraction for the abyss, characteristic of the cultural heritage of northern romanticism, precursor of abstract art of the twentieth century. The own development of research brings us to the limit notion,inherent in these works, which will be essential to deepen the understanding of the two categories which raises the title: House and Horizon. The architect makes up the space who lives from autonomous elements and loaded with significance by themself. Platforms, walls and roofs in many combinations, reveal, finally, what the architect has been seeking at a long process of more than thirty years. In the works studied here, Jørn Utzon indicates to us how modern man can restare a genuine condition of architecture: provide guidance to the human being
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