Heinrich Wölfflin’s voice reflects ideals of art historical discourse of the early twentieth century. The debate at the time explored the duality between closed form versus open form, limited versus unlimited, and repose versus tension and movement. This issue of TAD showcases the evolution of the discourse around tectonics in architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture in the last decades. The continuing digitalization of design, fabrication, and construction suggests a changing investigation of architectural tectonics, identifying new frameworks that define the contemporary role of structural systems and all processes and supply chains in construction. The impact of climate change adds further urgency to evaluating design approaches and outcomes, material use, forces at play, technology, and data involved. Changing social frameworks uncover architectural influences and construction conventions beyond the commonly accepted precedents.
