Tectonics (architecture)

In modern architectural theory, the tectonics is an artistic way to express the corporeality of a building through architectural forms that reflect the actual structure.^[1] An example of the use of tectonics and its opposite, atectonics, can be found at the AEG turbine factory: Peter Behrens, the architect, had applied tectonics by revealing the steel frame that supports the roof on the long side of the building, and used atectonics by constructing massive "Egyptian-like" walls in the corners that are not connected to the roof and thus conceal the actual load and support organization of the frontal facade.^[2]

The tectonics, "poetics of construction", has multiple related meanings.^[1]

Tectonics is inseparable from the physical nature of buildings and thus counteracts external influences of other visual arts on architecture.^[1]