Zimzum

צמצום, Zimzum (maintaining the Latin transcription, even if it is commonly transcribed in English as Tsimtsum), is a theological concept that could be of great relevance to architectural thought. Its author was the 16th-century kabbalist and mystic Isaak Luria. According to Luria, for creation to take place, the Infinite, God, must first make space for the world. It does so with a double movement, first of contraction to a point, then of retraction, moving away from its centre. This empty and dark centre (called tehiru) will be the place for the universe. If the account of creation is the account of the architectural composition of the universe, it should be possible to secularize the mystical concept of zimzum and see its potential for architectural thought. I suggest four lines of thought: withdrawal, self-limitation, giving freedom, impotence. Architecture must begin with retraction; the architectural act is all the more powerful when it is an act of self-limitation; architecture works to establish free relationships; the power of the architectural act is a confession of impotence.