Tectonics (architecture)
In modern architectural theory, the tectonics is an artistic way to express the corporeality of a building through architectural forms that visually reflect the actual structure. 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.
The tectonics, "poetics of construction", has multiple related meanings.
Tectonics is inseparable from the physical nature of buildings and thus counteracts external influences of other visual arts on architecture.
History
The word "tectonic" comes from, "carpenter, builder" that eventually led to master builder, . First application to modern architecture belongs to Karl Otfried Müller, in Handbuch der Archaologie der Kunst he defined the art forms that combine art with utility as, with the architecture being the peak of this tectonic activities. Karl Botticher in his Die Tektonik der Hellenen suggested splitting the design into a structural "core-form" and decorative "art-form". Art-form was supposed to reflect the functionality of the core-form: for example, rounding and tapering of the column should suggest its load-bearing function. Tectonic system was supposed to bind these multiple facets of a building into a unified whole.
Atectonics
Atectonics is an inverse of tectonics, a situation where the artistic appearance of the architectural form is detached from its structure and construction. Eduard Sekler introduced the concept of atectonics in 1911 as the arrangement where the interplay between load and support is "visually neglected or obscured". An architect can use both the tectonics and atectonics simultaneously. Even if the construction and structure are interdependent and exposed, like in the Crystal Palace, there is some space left for the atectonics.