A Poetic Landscape for the Next Millennium

Abstract

When asked to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton Poetry Lectures at Harvard about the future of literature, Calvino came up with six qualities depicting each one through several literary examples. He titled them “Six Memos for the Next Millennium.” Similarly, we recognise several architectural sensations resulting from a composition of expressive qualities that are transversal to several works of architecture, independently of their typologies, construction techniques, materials, although these elements enter into the aesthetic composition. Central to our argument is the link established by Deleuze & Guattari between territory, matters of expression and the composition of sensations to define what we name of “Poetic Landscape,” following the idea of the becoming-expressive of the territory and how the territorial marks and the territory-house system are at the origin of art. We will analyse a landscape located in the cold and icy lands through the presentation of works by Peter Zumthor in order to contribute to the notion of Poetic Landscape addressing the values and qualities for the next millennium.