Tor and monuments building fabric gives an image mntinuity, of expansivenese stretch- nity’, the objectis a closed tity. Objects concentrate visual ation; they stand out against a Kground. This concept can be rsposed to the town where cer- 1 structures appear as objects (object-buildings)becausethey stand out from the urban fabric. This is organized according to the laws of proximity, similarity, repetition and common orientation of elements. ‘The same phenomenon occurs in- side buildings where certain ele- meats - columns, doors, windows, fiche, fireplace, altar, ete. ~ appear as isolated elements which can then be identified and even named, while Figure 111 These engravings. fram an aighteenth-contury stlas 1 Swiss towns by G. Bodenehr, ara significant: gates, ‘hoeches, convents and fountains (puisic symbols per excel ance) aveishown isametrieally, whereas the rest of the town is dicated as fabric, the reat of the environment is char acterized by greater homogencity. ‘In practically all pre-industrial societies, ordinary dwellings and urban places of work are accommo- dated in buildings which together form a relatively homogeneous fab- ric. Once this regularity has been established, any breaks in it assume special importance. In principle they are reserved for monuments otpub landmarks: the templ He, market. In the historic centre of Berne object-reading” is allowed only for the cathedral, town hall. town gates and the fountains. The other build- ings join together to form the fabrie and it is only when one is close to them that one starts to recognize new units identifiable as such. A bierarehy is thus established (Fig- ures 111 and 112). ‘The plan of Rome drawn up by Giambattista Nolli in 1748 is = remarkable typological document which shows very clearly this com- plementarity between toxture and object of between town and monu- ment (Figure 113). It makes it possi- ble to distinguish relationships of seal~and spatial organization be- twa, external space, internal pub- He space, and the mass of the urban Figure 112 houses shail be designed in such 2 way {as not fo.rval in any way the majesty of the temples ...'(L. B. Albert); Mah. Mer- fan, Zirich seen from the Lake, 1642. " fabric bf residential areas and work places (shown in black). It also shows how the buildings intended to have the value of an object or a monument are integrated into this fabric of the ordinary and the every- day, and in what way they structure the town. Alberti says that the site ‘on which a temple is erected:must be solemn, noble and splendid and that it must be exempt from profane interference, He considers the object for « place of worship and specifies ‘that in front of its fagade a spacious and dignified equare should be laid out, Forcertain sacred object-buiidings: in Rome it is only the front fagude which takes on this object role - announcer of an extension of the public space towards the interior and vice versa, while the other three sides are embedded in the general Figire 113 Fateic, bject-busldings and bjeet-tagades: plan of Rome by Giam- battista Noll, 1748 fexcerp0 fabric. We are concerned here with an object-fagade. Despite the de- mands of urban density, the fabric yields, even if only slightly, to retain a widening of public space in front of the buildings or object- fagades. In the two examples cited, Berne and Rome, the urban object is linked toan idea: the temple to worship, the gate-to power, the fountain to the ides. of a place of exchange of news and gossip. These concepts go be- yond the primary function of the object and imply tradition in the form of an allegory, expressing a profound truth about collective lite ‘The prerequisites for a monument are fulfilled. In a certain sense the school, uni- versity, museum, train station and even the bank have acquired enough collective importance during theFigure-114 Object on the square - fabric ‘slong the streat; Mario Botta, State Bank ‘of Fribourg, 1977-81. twentieth century to suparsede tra- ditional institutions. The object- building tends to become a symbol ‘of the institution, Mario Botia's State Bank of Fribourg (Figure 114) shows an interesting articulation ‘between object and fabric. Tt is not the whole of the bank which is treated as object or monument, but ‘only the volume which faces the square in front of the station, whe- reas the two wings facing on to the street mesh with the urban fabric, ‘This example reflects a new sensi- tivity to the site and the town as fabric. If this head office had been built during the 1960s, on the same site, the entire building would prob- ably have been trested as an object to the detriment of the urban fabric. nce the monumental character of buildings 4s linked te the ides of permanence, there is a great tempta- tion to refer to conventional codes. We then tend to use’ codes from the past, which leads Peter Bisenman to say that... the monument hns been eclectic by definition since the six- teenth century ...." That explains the tenacious resistance of great public institutions to adopting the language of modernity. The compet!- tion for the League of Nations in 1823, won by Lé Corbusier, but ‘commissioned to other architects in ‘the purest eclectic tradition, is a good illustration of this battle be- ‘tween the moderns and the eclectios ‘over what is appropriate for = monument,