In architectural discourse, the project tends to dominate the conversation, while in reality, it is often the object that draws most of the attention. In doing so, we erase the processual dimension that defines the project—its nature as a work in progress. The Italian word progettazione expresses this well: it captures the necessary activation of the progetto in order for the architectural operation to be fulfilled. The project aims toward its realization as an object. The project is the act of moving toward it—whether in conception or in practice.
There is, then, a need for a third term, situated between project and object, to describe the articulation, the unification of projection and objection, without allowing one to replace the other: OPUS, a term that clearly conveys how the architectural work is an operation through which a project becomes an object.