Teratogenesis in Architecture

Abstract

The term “teratogenesis? ("the birth of monsters" – Greek) originated in medicine and biology as the need to comprehend and generalize a wide range of phenomena of organic anomaly of living beings, including humans, known since ancient times and causing superstitious fear, disgust, feelings of mystical horror.
Genetic or acquired deformities of people were perceived as a danger and associated with images of predatory animals and
insects. At the same time, they caused a tendency to pathological spectacles. Crippled people were shown at fairs and in traveling
circuses, for many of them it was the only means of maintaining life, and for their keepers it was commerce.
Images of monsters, enhanced by fantasy, were used to intimidate enemies and people of weak mentality, giving rise to an
entire industry of criminal design, displayed in the works of writers and artists. In art, from time to time, coinciding with periods of social decadence, there were waves of interest in mystical imagery, the development of plots infused with sacred horror. Among
other attributes of expressiveness, teratogenesis was used in architecture in stylized images of chimeras, lions, Atlanteans. Today,
architecture can do without an intimidating bestiary, relying in search of expressiveness on symbolism, immanent to the ideas
themselves – in tectonics, anthropic analogues, visual illusions. The article traces the historical sequence of metamorphoses of
teratogenesis as a means of risky harmony of architecture.