Reading detail and poetry

As the technique of detailing changed from the hands of the craftsman to the tools of the architect, how has the resulting construction of details changed? Explain in terms of scale, material and cost.

Many architects today have lost touch with the physical, hands on, element of architecture. With most of the designs created digitally, many times, details are overlooked or discounted. The craftsman comes into the design to aid the architect with the implementation of the details. While the architect creates and designs specific points and details of a project, it is the skill and knowledge of the craftman who is able to implement those details precisely and accurately.

How does "geometrical relationship" of individual details provide an understanding of the whole building if "indirect vision" localizes the viewer and "habit determines to a large extent even optical reception"?

The use of multiple details throughout the entire project helps to solidify the design. Then the details reference each other that create a dialog that helps to understands the larger extent of the project.

Carlo Scarp's details are a "result of an intellectual game" where the Open City buildings are constructed from an act of poetry. Describe what role the detail plays to "tell-the-tale" in each of these environments.

The details in Scarp’s work “tell the tale”  are the main element that influence the rest of building, including the spaces derived within the building. The Open City buildings illustrates its relationship to the site. Little focus is placed on the symbolism of the building, but rather it is on the poetic beauty.

Pendleton-Jullian writes about the Open City as emerging from and being in the landscape. Does allowing landscape to initiate "the configuration of territory and space" challenge Western building notions, and how so?

Allowing the landscape to naturally create boundaries and spaces is a concept not utilized by Westerners. Emphasis is placed on designing a site to accommodate the building situated on it, rather than the other way around.

Describe some detail conditions of the Open City that convey "lightness" as Pendleton-Jullian refers to.

The lightness of the Open City can be seen as literal in the sense of use of timber to convey lofty fluid spaces without large obstructions. Also with this, lightness can take on a visibility aspect, with the openness of the timber can provide increased visibility and the transition of light throughout the City.