Vitruvio International journal of Architecture Technology and Sustainability Volume 1 Is 2 VII EDITORIAL THE NATURAL MATTER AS A NEW ARCHITECTURAL PARADIGM The natural matter as a new architectural paradigm. At Tipasa, I see equals I believe, and I am not stubborn enough to deny what my hands can touch and my lips FDUHVV�������7KHUH�LV�D�IUHHGRP�WKHUH� Nuptials at Tipasa: Albert Camus The experience of the stone has transformed my architectural approach. Without premeditation as nothing in me has changed through the thought, the act precedes it. I like it before understanding it. Architectural form comes from the desire to caress and love the willing matter. And in this way all proceeds from the matter and the experience built. The Parthenon is the great human dream alienated by the sterile forms of the aesthetics. The art disappears in the contemplation of dead forms of plastics events. Only the vernacular building connects the human to his existence. The designed architecture purposely alienates. In vernacular architectural forms is the matter which guides. Architecture of stone, wood, earth, straw, connects with those who live them. There are no limits between the human’s body and houses emerging from the site. What we identify as suitable forms, are not, EHFDXVH� WKHUH� LV� QR� IRUP� WKRXJKW�� 0DWWHU� GLFWDWHV�� and the human is guided. He loves before knowing he loves it. He is not concerned about the love of beauty. He puts his body in unison with its environment. His art is thrifty. Having to think before building is the true perversion. Perverse reversal that forces the pencil on the blank page. The architect must be a surveyor. He must measure the terrain with a human step. Stick the wood stakes. Place the stones. The act removes the drawing. The adventure can begin. 7KH�FHOODU�RI�9DXYHUW��P\�ÓUVW�VWRQH�FRQVWUXFWLRQ��ZDV� born of a chance encounter. It was during holiday near the famous Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard. On the path I took every day to reach the river, there was an enclosure of cyclopean stones. They were stacked by a scrapyard worker anxious to hide the object of his work. That is to say, the barbarity of a consumer society rejecting and throwing to the ground the objects used that doesn’t want. Seduced by the power of this building, I sought to know from where were drawn those stones. The discovery of the quarry was an emotional shock. The monstrous pile of stacked stones sprang to my eyes. I was swept up in a “maelstrom” kinetics. I saw at the same time the pyramids and temples of Egypt, the palace of Herod, the great cathedrals and Ankhor- 9DW��0DFKX�3LFKX�DQG�WKH�0D\DQ�S\UDPLGV��7KH�VWRQHV� told me their secret. They whispered me: take us; we will take you beyond time. Each grain of our skin will UHÔHFW�WKH�FRVPRV��