In Friedman’s work structures always serve to facilitate freedom. Whether this concerns the occupant or urban planner, or the architect or artist, Friedman links the concepts of structure and freedom again and again. In the manifesto L’Architecture Mobile(1956) the (prefabricated) elements can be combined in various ways.
A ‘Space Chains’ construction: a polyhedron on stilts, Yona Friedman, 1970
Expressions of freedom can be discerned in an abstract sense, in permitting randomness and accepting the impossibility of making predictions.
He is also deeply interested in mathematical issues of a philosophical nature as a way of testing his theories. These underlie his studies into form (see further in Tetrahedron, Polyhedron and Lamellar Structures).
As Friedman critically followed developments in architecture and became particularly troubled by the penchant for geometry among architects. Rather than relying on geometric forms, he seeks a creative process devoid of rules, receptive to random factors. He worked for decades to experiment with constructional principles that were repeatable and yet unpredictable, so as to be applied in all sorts of (spontaneous) buildings and constructions. His principle of the ‘Space Chains’ became of interest by an exhibition in the art fair in Basel in 2010, where he titled it ‘Iconostase‘. (See also in Irregular shapes and in Characteristic topics).
Sub themes
–Tetrahedron
–Polyhedron
–Lamellar & Moebian Structures
–Quirky configurations
–Irregular shapes