Skin: Absence and Multiplicity

“ Through skin we live [...] we live through skin too distant to speak of separation; [...] we live through the skin of glimpses." [1]. Absence is connected to an idea of rarefaction of surfaces subtracted from a system (voids); multiplicity instead is linked to the desire of discover the contents’ richness of the stratification; those are two characteristics of the skin seen also as a lining when the architect intervenes in the recovery of architectural interiors. It is a stratification that involves parts that are grafted, overlapped and contained [2]. These are all the characters that are found in Jean Nouvel's research: overcoming the concept of limit with a skin that becomes a permeable system. Although it is not a mere restructuring, the Fondation Cartier is an eloquent example of dematerialization and multiplication of space and consequently a bearer of greater loci scientiam. Those characters that can be translated and found into his recent work to restore the interiors of Palazzo Rhinoceros in Rome for the Fendi Foundation, where "crossable" scenarios are reconstructed, in which the presence of time seems evanescent. [1] R. Krynicki, “Magnetic Point: Selected Poems”, New Directions Publishing, 2017. [2] P. Lewis, M.Tsurumaki and D.J. Lewis., “Manual of Section”, Princeton Architectural Press: NY, 2016.