Thinking with your eye, thinking with your hand

Resumen

Abstract

Defining architecture as visual-functional art, Asis Cabrero goes back to the origins of the human species to explain the elements of conscience involved in the work of humankind. Human survival is voluntary, variable, personal and inventive in sharp contrast with the instinct of nature's other species. Humans are intelligent beings whose thinking is determined by their sense of sight, by the ability of their hands to make tools, on top of their predatory nature. This human animal of exchangeable organs is able to specialize himself in the use of tools he makes to be on equal terms with specialized animals. So does man make tools to come face to face with a variable and changing nature, be it a knife, an ax or a shelter.

Since Architecture is a product of what your eye sees, it is the functional use of your hand that comes into play in Architectural drawings. According to Cabrero, matter becomes material through tools, to be rigged, to be built. Tools which have evolved over the course of history as matter always remain unchanged in nature. Asís Cabrero has researched five primitive architectures related to five original matters. He has studied the dome structure, the lintel, the framework, the laminated structure and the removable structure in connection with the rational use of clay, stone, wood, branches and skin.

The variety of available materials in the professional career of Asís Cabrero, from post-war isolation to the liberalization of the sixties, allow us to set five ages in the work of Francisco de Asís Cabrero according to the material and the tools he uses.