The Numerical Matrix in Samonà’s Architecture in Messina: From Geometry to Visual Modeling

The drawings of the residential buildings designed by Giuseppe Samonà for the Cortina del Porto of Messina are set in the historical context of the mid-twentieth century, a period in which the transition from academic graphic virtuosity to the exaltation of line as an expression of design invention had already occurred. Graphic language becomes the means of communicating architecture, where pure geometric figures and rational numbers are the codified expression that visualizes form, defines functions, and verifies dimensions. The representation of the elevation is the tool with which Samonà expresses the syntactic variations of the blocks. Ink drawings on tracing paper, a differentiated stroke for each element defines the rigid structural structure, the window divisions, or the balcony overhangs. The identification of modules and relationships become the basis for the structuring of a Python code, combined with the VPL, through which knowledge and valorization can be produced.