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. 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.