MCM. Milan Capital of the Modern by Actar Publishers

MCM

Modern architecture articulated itself in specific centers of propulsion, revision and critique during the 20th Century. The case of Milan is exemplary: Terragni and Razionalismo, the reconstruction with Ponti, Moretti, ViganĂ˛, the Tendenza of Rossi, product design, up to the current research. MCM traces this history from several contributorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; points of view.

Milan Capital of the

Modern Edited by Lorenzo Degli Esposti

Expo Belle Arti by Vittorio Sgarbi Milan, Capital of the Modern Editor Lorenzo Degli Esposti Editor of City and Landscape Content Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo Editor of Design Content Francesca Balena Arista Editorial Coordination Degli Esposti Architetti Ricardo Devesa Translations Stephanie Carwin Revision and Tailoring of Content Francesco Degli Esposti Michela Florio Michela Mischiatti Giulia Novati Transcripts of Content Andrea Abeni Andrea Bonatti Natalia Brancaleon Caterina Buontempo Marta Elisa Cecchi Giorgio Costantino Gaia Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Alpaos Livia Daniele Andrea Di Marzo Valeria Donini Marco De Santi Rebecca Felline Marco Galloni Paola Gambero Gennaro Giacalone

Federica Locati Federica Mercandelli Federica Montingelli Andrea Mologni Ginevra Parietti Fulvio Perrotti Vittorio Raspa Elia Sardina Enrico Vito Sciannameo Lorenzo Serra Pietro Servalli Valentina Tedeschi Luana Torri Matteo Tronci Giulia Zattoni

Acknowledgements by the Editor

In collaboration with:

The completion of this project could not have been possible without the participation and contributions of all the authors (architects, photographers, scholars) and rights owners (institutions, foundations, archives), and without a great deal of effort by the staff of Regione Lombardia, Expo Belle Arti, Padiglione Architettura, Degli Esposti Architetti, and Triennale di Milano. I express my deep sense of gratitude to Vittorio Sgarbi for having appointed me as curator of the Padiglione Architettura and for his trust and guidance; to Paolo Lazza and Francesco Degli Esposti for their daily support; and, above all, to Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo, whose suggestions and encouragements have contributed immensely to the evolution of my ideas on the project.

Sponsored by:

Milan Capital of the

Modern

Edited by Lorenzo Degli Esposti EXPO BELLE ARTI BY VITTORIO SGARBI PADIGLIONE ARCHITETTURA GRATTACIELO PIRELLI â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MILAN

Milano, 1999

Ph. Giovanni Chiaramonte

PADIGLIONE ARCHITETTURA

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EXPO BELLE ARTI

Expo Belle Arti Lombardia ROBERTO MARONI

President Regione Lombardia FABRIZIO SALA

Vice President and Councilor of Home, Social Housing, Expo 2015 and Internationalization of Business CRISTINA CAPPELLINI

Councilor of Cultures, Identities, and Autonomies

The 2015 Milan Expo represents a unique opportunity to promote the cultural, artistic, architectural, and landscape features of Lombardy. Of particular importance for this purpose is the collaboration between public entities and cultural institutions that are active in the region, which can give rise to positive consequences. The Lombardy Region has sought to enhance its cultural heritage through a wide-ranging project in order to reinvigorate the culture and art of Lombardy. The artistic and scientific project of the Expo Belle Arti Lombardia (Lombardy Fine Arts Expo), conceived and developed by professor Vittorio Sgarbi, whom we thank for this valuable work, proposes a rich program of cultural activities and events through itineraries visiting diverse and unique sites, with the offer of promotional rates and logistical facilitation, so as to increase the attractiveness and visibility of individual initiatives and the sites that host them. Produced in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and of Tourism, the City of Milan, and the principal cultural institutions of Lombardy, the project allows for the appreciation of the sites and artworks among the most evocative in Lombardy: essential masterpieces such as Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit, lesser known works, because they are very often off the usual tourist itineraries or not usually open to the public, or arriving in Lombardy through this great initiative and through the universal exposition. A rich and unusual program, of great interest, which from May until October offered exhibitions and a wide variety of itineraries in order to discover or rediscover the “Fine Arts” in Milan and throughout Lombardy.

Grattacielo Pirelli, Milan

Ph. Marco Menghi

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Index MCM

Preface by Roberto Maroni, Fabrizio Sala, Cristina Cappellini

Milan, Capital of the Modern by Lorenzo Degli Esposti MCM List MCM Map

The Ideal City. Homage to Guglielmo Mozzoni

17 26

Guglielmo Mozzoni, a Multifaceted Personality by Giulia Maria Crespi A Lost Città Ideale by Vittorio Sgarbi Homage to Guglielmo Mozzoni by Lorenzo Degli Esposti It Seems like Yesterday... by Giovanni Battista Litta Modignani Urban Model by Lorenzo Greppi “Where the Frogs still Sing” by Carlo Bertelli For Expo It Takes a Città Ideale by Mario Botta Long Live Muzun by Fiorella Basile The Città Ideale by Giorgio Galli A Constructive Discourse on Large Buildings by Antonio Migliacci “To Become Eternal, then, there Is Always Time” by Fabrizio Salvadori Architecture in Service of the Butterflies... and of the City by Maria Vittoria Capitanucci Guglielmo Mozzoni: “The Hidalgo of Biumo” by Luigi Zanzi Private Memory by Gianni Ravasi The Città Ideale by Guglielmo Mozzoni by Fiorella Basile, Silvia Basso, Carlo Bertelli,

Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Lorenzo Greppi, Antonio Migliacci The Exhibition Installation by Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Luca Veltri

Syntactic Architecture

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Syntactic Architecture by Maddalena d’Alfonso Behind the Scenes by Sara Daniele

Modern and Contemporary Milan

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About the Modern conversation with Vittorio Gregotti About the Modern conversation with Antonio Monestiroli Milan, Capital of the Modern by Ernesto d’Alfonso Modern and Postmodern Milan by Pierluigi Nicolin Charachter of Milan and Architecture Today by Angelo Torricelli with Sara Protasoni “I Am Listening to Your Heart...” Milano by Federico Bucci Architectural Walks in Milan by Marco Borsotti, Paolo Brambilla, Maria Vittoria Capitanucci On Books (for Milan) by Carlo Berizzi, Gianni Biondillo, Marco Biraghi, Paolo Caffoni, Maria Vittoria Capitanucci, Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Emanuele Galesi, Filippo Minelli For an Atlas of the Transformations of the Milan Metropolitan Area by Francesco de Agostini Horizontal Milan by Nicolò Privileggio with Marco Baccarelli, Sebastiano Brandolini, Pietro Macchi Cassia Settings for the Greater Metropolitan Area by Emilio Battisti

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Milanese Cases The Eclipse of the Region by Davide Borsa The Case of the Pietà Rondanini by Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Emilio Battisti, Amedeo Bellini, Carlo Bertelli, Davide Borsa, Philippe Daverio, Maria Teresa Fiorio, Augusto Rossari, Vittorio Sgarbi, Silvano Tintori Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi by Davide Borsa, Ugo Carughi, Roberto Mascazzini, Sergio Poretti, Antonella Ranaldi, Bruno Reichlin, Viviana Viganò Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi by Davide Borsa, Andrea Bruno, Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Antonella Ranaldi, Attilio Stocchi Projects for the New Location of the Accademia di Brera by Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Giorgio Fiorese, Gabriella Guarisco, Luca Monica, Stefano Pizzi, Angelo Torricelli Big Milano, an Urban Development Phase by Richard Ingersoll with Luca Beltrami Gadola, Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo, Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Rolando Mastrodonato, Jacopo Muzio Major Works and Financial Crisis by Roberto Cuda New Clients by Nicolò Ornaghi, Francesco Zorzi Isola, an Italian Neoliberal Tale by Isola Art Center (Alessandro Azzoni, Vincenzo Onida, Mariette Schiltz)

Schools of Lombardy Architecture Schools Roundtable by Gianandrea Barreca, Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Marco Morandotti, Emilio Pizzi, Angelo Torricelli Studying and Teaching Architecture: Projects for Contemporary Cities and Landscapes by Marco Biraghi, Corinna Morandi, Luigi Spinelli O.C. International Summer School Politecnico di Milano by Guya Bertelli, Michele Roda Workshop Terra Viva by Silvio Anderloni, Eugenia Bolla, Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo, Simona Galateo, Richard Ingersoll, Stefano Lardera Adrianea Academy by Pier Federico Caliari, Carola Gentilini Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera by Donatella Bonelli, Roberto Favaro, Stefano Pizzi, Sandro Scarrocchia, Tiziana Tacconi Architecture and the Arts: New Synergies for the City by Francesca Bonfante, Giuseppe Bonini, Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Stefano Pizzi, Angelo Torricelli Profession? Designer by Silvia Piardi with Francesca Balena Arista, Marta Bernstein, Massimo Bianchini, Riccardo Casiraghi, Odo Fioravanti, Martin Luccarelli, Jan Mattassi Domus Academy by Gianandrea Barreca, Giulia Mezzalama, Ludovica Molo, Elisa Poli, Matteo Ragni, Andrea Vercellotti, Francesca Zocchi NABA Nuova Accademia Belle Arti Milano by Nicholas Bewick, Dante Donegani, Massimo Pettiti, Luca Poncellini, Tim Power, Denis Santachiara, Mario Trimarchi, Francesca Zocchi IED. Multiform Modern by Carlo Forcolini, Fabrizio Bertero, Federico Cassani, Giorgio Grandi, Matteo Moscatelli, Lorenzo Palmeri, Carla Sedini Istituto Marangoni by Cristina Dosio Morozzi, Andres Avanzi, Giulia Bedoni, Marcella Bricchi, Paolo Meroni, Francesco Ponzi Views for Milan by Bartolomeo Corsini

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Architecture

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Conversation about the Modern by Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Peter Eisenman, Rafael Moneo Architecture Research Roundtable by Alessandro Armando, Marco Biraghi, Marco Brizzi, Sara Marini, Valerio Paolo Mosco, Vittorio Pizzigoni Why Italian Architecture Now by Valerio Paolo Mosco with Giovanni La Varra, Valter Scelsi Italian Writings by Cherubino Gambardella, Luca Molinari Italia by Benno Albrecht The Value of Absence by Maurizio Oddo The Architecture of Effects by Alessandro Armando, Leonardo Caffo San Rocco Magazine by Matteo Ghidoni, Vittorio Pizzigoni MAARC Abstract Art and Rationalist Architecture Museum by Giovannella Bianchi, Ado Franchini In/Arch by Franco Porto Ethical Architecture by Francesco Gnecchi Ruscone After the City by Franco Purini Views from the Belvedere by Aimaro Isola, Saverio Isola The Shakespearean Theater of Gdańsk by Renato Rizzi Architecture and Territory by Mario Botta Antinory Winery by Marco Casamonti Living Architecture by Aldo Nolli Urban Culture of Densification by Max Dudler Five Projects by Manuel Aires Mateus Projects by José Linazasoro Building on the Built and Building the New by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra “Remote in Space but Close by in Time” by Cristián Undurraga Place, Precedent and Invention by Yvonne Farrell

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City and Landscape

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Space-Place-Context-Landscape by Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo Landscape Urbanism by Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo with Alfredo Ramirez, Mosè Ricci, Charles Waldheim Geo-graphical Urbanism by Nikos Katsikis with Franco Farinelli, Adrian Lahoud, Paola Viganò, Alex Wall City and Landscape Roundtable by Matteo Agnoletto, Carlo Berizzi, Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo, Nicolò Privileggio, Alessandro Rocca, Nicola Russi Politics, City and Architecture by Marco Biraghi, Matteo Vegetti A Critique of Urban Sprawl by Tiziana Villani Imaginaries and Latencies by Sara Marini with Alberto Bertagna, Dario Gentili Notes on the City and the Future by Massimo Pica Ciamarra Beware of the Smart City! by conrad-bercah Learning from the Mass by Salvatore Peluso (IRA-C) Inequality, Informality, Insecurity: the Challenges of Urban Design by Camillo Boano Hanoi 2050. The Genesis of a Metropolis by Matteo Aimini The European City in Evolution by Giuseppe Marinoni City Portraits by Daniele Vitale

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Berlin: Form and Memory of the Historic City by Michele Caja Milan-Madrid 2012 by Stevan Tesic Backgrounds by Nicola Russi with Rui Braz, Paola Viganò Public Hyperspace by Alessandro Rocca with Alessandro Biamonti, Giovanni Corbellini, Gennaro Postiglione Excavations, Topographies, and Diagrams of Open Space by Fabrizio Leoni Building Natural Habitats to Avoid the Consumption of New Land: The Case of the Piana Fiorentina by Carlo Scoccianti Po Valley Architectures by Matteo Agnoletto with Ugo Cornia, Manuel Orazi, Nicola Rizzoli

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Design

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Learning from Milan by Francesca Balena Arista About Design conversation with Andrea Branzi About Design conversation with Michele De Lucchi Inhabiting Milan by Ugo La Pietra Fondamentalism by Andrea Branzi Ettore Sottsass and New Italian Design by Andrea Branzi Architecture & Design Short Circuits by Gianni Pettena The Architecture of the Object by Nigel Coates Design in the Food Industry: Culture, Products, Communication by Rosa Chiesa, Ali Filippini, Gianluca Grigatti, Giulia Tacchini Urban Needs by Francesco Faccin James Irvine. A portrait Created through Objects by Maddalena Casadei, Francesca Picchi, Marialaura Rossiello Design without Designers by Chiara Alessi, Giorgio Biscaro Superstudio at the Belvedere by Piero Frassinelli, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia

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On-line

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Divisare by Marcus Lloyd Andresen The Booklist by Luca Galofaro Viceversa by Valerio Paolo Mosco Gizmo by Florencia Andreola, Marco Biraghi, Gabriella Lo Ricco, Mauro Sullam ArcDueCittà: Architectural Writing/Communication by Ernesto d’Alfonso Building the Expo (Domus) by Donatella Bollani, Ilaria Bollati, Luisa Collina, Laura Daglio Il Giornale dell’Architettura by Luca Gibello with Davide Borsa SMown Publishing by Giuseppe Marinoni with Alessandra Coppa, Paolo Rosselli Analogic Work by Valter Scelsi Occupy Facebook by Davide Tommaso Ferrando Reflected Architecture by Marco Brizzi

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Architects at the Belvedere Architects at the Belvedere by Lorenzo Degli Esposti Gregotti Associati International Sergio Crotti Enrica Invernizzi Studio Associato Gianni Braghieri Monestiroli Architetti Associati Studio Mauro Galantino Torricelli Associati - Studio di Architettura quattroassociati Broggi+Burckhardt Onsitestudio aMDL - Architetto Michele De Lucchi CBA Camillo Botticini Architect OBR Open Building Research act_romegialli Giulia de Appolonia Officina di Architettura Studio di Architettura Marco Castelletti Nunzio Gabriele Sciveres Studio GSMM Architetti LFL Architetti Studio Nonis B22 MODOURBANO di_archon ass_ Consalez Rossi Architetti Associati Barreca & La Varra Bianco + Gotti Architetti Studio Roberto Mascazzini Architetto [greppi architetti] liverani/molteni baukuh PBEB Paolo Belloni Architetti Giulio Fenyves - Arco Associati Carlo Rivi Marco Ghilotti MFA Architects Piuarch Scandurra Studio Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel Studio Albini Associati

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Park Associati 5+1AA Stefano Boeri Architetti Caputo Partnership Exposure Architects Guidarini & Salvadeo Architetti Associati Laura Pasquini e Federico Tranfa Architetti Lissoni Associati DAP studio ifdesign CZA Cino Zucchi Architetti Remo Dorigati - OdA Associati MAB Arquitectura Cecchi & Lima Architetti Associati Benno Albrecht GTRF Tortelli Frassoni Architetti Associati ES-arch ernicoscaramelliniarchitetto A2BC Studio Albori CN10 Metrogramma LPzR AouMM Argot ou La Maison Mobile Alterstudio Partners Caravatti_Caravatti Architetti Architetti Senza Frontiere Lorenzo NoĂ¨ Studio di Architettura DONTSTOP architettura Lopes Brenna Architetti Studio WOK Francesco Librizzi Studio Morpurgo de Curtis ArchitettiAssociati Costruzioni Italiane 02arch Paolo Mestriner - Studioazero Quinzii Terna Architettura Attilio Stocchi Arkpabi - PalĂš & Bianchi Architetti Italo Rota

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Degli Esposti Architetti (Padiglione Architettura Curator)

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MCM Map BY LORENZO DEGLI ESPOSTI

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Map elaborated by Andrea Angonoa

The Ideal City

HOMAGE TO AGUGLIELMO MOZZONI

Cover of “Domus” January 1947 Guglielmo Mozzoni, Luigi Ghidini, House in Casorate Sempione (1945-46)

Courtesy of Editoriale Domus

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Guglielmo Mozzoni, a Multifaceted Personality GIULIA MARIA CRESPI

The personality of Guglielmo Mozzoni was made up of various facets, sometimes in conflict, but that all flowed into a highly personal and strong-willed character, to the point of becoming taxing and self-referential. The whole of it was traversed by a passion for nature, the simple life, the beauty of the sky and the woods, where with wild abandon he felt like king and master. His great passion was, early in the morning, venturing into the rural solitude with his most faithful dog, his most trusted friend, and together finding something wild. The woodcock was his most longed for goal, his God who he worshiped, but unfortunately hunted in order to more fully take possession. Famous is his poem about the woodcock, in which he could see a spiritual flight into infinity... Woodcock pilgrim In the morn, you rise and go... Tell me why Tell me that you know Messenger of love and passion Soaring bravely at the helm In the sun shining black and white And fly, fly... fly with me Into the great Mystery... ! Words of Guglielmo Mozzoni But along with this bucolic feeling, another innate passion enveloped him: painting and drawing. During his natural and artistic forays and when he was traveling, he stopped constantly to quickly fix his emotions in a watercolor. This was a natural and spontaneous manifestation to express himself and perhaps also to find his essence. And it is through this other way of revealing himself that he drew places and people with smooth and continuous lines. Even in the markings he sketched during concerts when he tried to put on paper the message of the notes.

But above all with clear and fast strokes, he sketched watercolors without retouching, without any stroke of the pen to highlight the contours. His other great passion was architecture. Always, when he was designing buildings, he sought to harmonize them with the surrounding area. And over the years he designed houses, offices, factories. But for construction in the city, in the beginning he admired the tall forms of the skyscraper. Forms that were however quickly repudiated by him in order to get to a modern and new residential concept. Thus was born the project of his CittĂ ideale, in opposition and in aversion to the growing city traffic, with its traffic jams, pollution, and noise. He noted thus that with the passing of years, fuel would become more and more expensive, the modes of transport more and more numerous, the traffic ever more chaotic. This CittĂ ideale, conceived in the beginning for a large number of inhabitants and then designed for smaller units, was studied in all of its details. In addition to harboring within it all the basic needs of the inhabitants, i.e. medical services, schools, libraries, meeting rooms, bank branches, the CittĂ ideale was made totally autonomous from an energy point of view. Additionally, it envisaged small vegetable plots and gardens with terraces positioned on the outside of it. A utopia? Perhaps. But maybe also a project that, especially in African and Asian nations, could bring new useful proposals. No wonder Guglielmo Mozzoni had frantically tried to adopt this proposal, on a smaller scale, for the Expo 2015. A similar project could have become the innovative symbol of the Expo, as how in the distant past, in the early 1900s, the Eiffel Tower had marked a new architectural perspective in Paris. Unfortunately, the proposal was not accepted by the Expo organizers. A fact that also often happened in the past, whenever a free thinker devised a theory or concept that was recognized as valid only after many years. So goes the world...

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Guglielmo Mozzoni, Luigi Ghidini, Residential building, 15 via Corridoni, Milan (1956-59)

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Ph. Daniele Zerbi

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Guglielmo Mozzoni, Luigi Ghidini, Residential building, 5 via Fatebenefratelli, Milan (1952-53) Giulio Minoletti, Giuseppe Chiodi, Elena Martelli, Casa del Cedro, 3 via Fatebenefratelli, Milan (1951-59)

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Ph. Daniele Zerbi

Maurizio Montagna, Studio in trittico, Casa Rustici, Milano (2014) exhibited for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Syntactic Architectureâ&#x20AC;? in the Architecture Pavilion of Expo Belle Arti (2015)

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Syntactic Architecture MADDALENA D’ALFONSO

It is a good idea to make clear that the aesthetic of modern architecture, thus determined by the experimental and technological use of reinforced concrete, by skeleton frames and not-bearing walls, is deeply linked to a photographic image, which above all tells the story of the new bare austerity of these types of environments and architectural spaces. This aspect is particularly evident at the beginning of the major publishing period of theoretical writings on modern architecture, at the moment of the affirmation of its new canons, and we particularly see it in two striking cases: Le Corbusier working with Gérard and Gravot, photographers to whom he gives precise instructions on how to portray his “five points of architecture”; and the Bauhaus, where photography is one of the major tools adopted to produce works and design. In the Bauhaus in particular, there exists an ensemble of activities, promoted by László Moholy-Nagy and Lucia Moholy, linked with its use, development, and the realization of photomontages and collages, in order to experiment with every kind of production possible using photographic paper imprinted by light. Memorable in terms of architecture are the didactic images of the school of Dessau, in particular that of the cantilevered terrace reflected in the windows in a wholly novel framing by Marianne Brandt: an image cited a thousand times in the works of the architects. I would like to stay with these two examples, because to me they seem to be particularly explicit in signifying just how much photography and the new construction industry are linked together in a new aesthetic. In fact, both are considered the result of analog mechanisms, which concern construction in phases, set according to new processes of industrialization, technologically perfected, the result of which has nothing to do with craftsmanship: i.e. with the hand that touches the material, molds it, manipulates and alters it, making it a work of art or architecture. At that time, they are exploring new ways of applying technology to the arts, and the result is absolutely disconnected from direct human contact with things, and nonetheless the creative thinking has, in the abstraction of the process, its strong point: a conceptual beginning. From this point of view, the gaze made available by the camera is extraordinary, because it openly denounces this new type of artistic creation. Therefore, it is evident how exactly architecture is tied to this new form of expression, and how photography comes to be chosen as the instrument par excellence of transmission and communication. We can thus understand why photography begins to express a new architectural syntax and a new image and that it places itself as the result of the constitutive and built form of modern industrial architecture, planned precisely according to a new process. This while knowing that in many cases these processes are still rudimentary and semi-industrial and still foresee direct human intervention, which persists in

the construction world today in the vast majority of cases. The way of conceiving architecture, its new ideal and utopian tension entering into the canons of an abstraction and a perfection, should have made possible the liberation of man from that exertion and physical and daily obligation that deprive him of his substantial freedom for full self-realization. An aspect that then was considered the essence of the realization and expression of the self. This sentiment that appears in the xx Century determines an ideal context for a new concept, which seeks to make architecture one of the major places in which freedoms, potentials, and ways of existing and relating to the built and the natural world is under experiment. For this reason, Italian and Milanese architecture magazines play an extremely large role in the international debate. In fact, Italy showed a way of looking at, conceiving, and interpreting this intellectual tension in a completely original and, in many cases, extremely relaxed and creative way: the marrying of art, design, and production created, in fact, a sort of coalition with the industry, in order to promote new architecture and the new shape of the city, paving the way for a partnership between photography and architecture and also among photographers and architects that I would call extraordinary. There are a great many cases of photographer architects, and the one who I love to cite among them all is Giuseppe Pagano, because marrying photography, architecture, and publishing, he pursues this union for the practice of an innovative architectural criticism. It is known that his way of constructing the pagination of the magazine with Persico, the desire to establish a dialectical relationship between text, photography, and architectural drawing begins after the experiments of Ponti. Nevertheless, Pagano embodies a time when dialogue, interdisciplinarity, and the desire to engage with a great diversity of personalities – both in terms of political convictions and cultural affiliation – is exemplary. Almost all of Pagano’s works are collaborations: the direction of Casabella with Persico, the architectural realizations with Albini, Diotallevi, and Gardella, among others. In the vi Triennale di Milano, for which he is the curator, exhibitions are presented with Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Gardella, Mazzoleni, Minoletti, Albini, Gardella, and Bottoni. Additionally, Rural Architecture is shown: a survey of the relationship between modern architecture and classical architecture that helps us understand this idea of syntactic architecture, presented by Lorenzo Degli Esposti and I at the Pirelli during Expo 2015. It is precisely the extraordinary nature of this survey that provides an invaluable case study, in order to interpret the originality of modern architecture developing in Italy in those years and in which Milan found its centrality. Pagano proposes the exhibition Rural Architecture, after having traveled through Italy, to immortalize, in anthropic

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Settings for the Greater Metropolitan Area EMILIO BATTISTI GRATTACIELO PIRELLI, 16.09.2015

I am not proposing to give a lecture, because at the moment the topic, the uncertain and rapidly changing situation does not permit it. I propose instead that we have a discussion. I would start from the definition of the term scenario (setting), both urban and territorial. This, at the summit of the Grattacielo Pirelli, is the ideal place to address this topic, because in front of us, perfectly visible, there is a part of the city of Milan that in recent years has been completely transformed. And I ask you: this urban reality that has been transformed, in what way would it be a landscape? From my point of view, it is a landscape only if the effect that its perception exercises on us provokes sensations, evokes ideas of reference, allows us to express valuations that we are able to share and communicate. It becomes a landscape if we are able to identify at least in part with this setting, feel part of it. This naturally occurs depending on our personal attitudes, our profession, even the type of education we have received. I take this as an example because we all ascertained first of all that this setting, this reality, has transformed itself fairly recently, and it follows a very long period during which this area was in a state of neglect and decay. At a certain point, about twenty years ago, the transformation began, and we found ourselves, in the face of this new reality, with a sense of surprise, because I do not think many of us had relations with the designers or had the possibility of being informed of what was being planned. I had that opportunity, knowing and associating for many years with Pierluigi Nicolin – the director of Lotus, a very important international magazine – who at the beginning of the planning had been interested in the development of this area, who had also had the task of identifying the project designer who set the general plan in place and who then designed the most conspicuous part of the architecture that borders Piazza Gae Aulenti: César Pelli. Pelli is an Argentine-born naturalized American architect, who had made interventions in other cities in Italy. I had the opportunity to meet him personally when I went to New York in the 1980s, and he had shown me some very interesting studies where, before opting to create projects like this one in Milan based on very emphatic volumes, he was very much engaged in the study of façade compositions in essentially two-dimensional terms, with a graphic type of approach, and in many of his realized buildings, these weaves and these textures are the characterizing factor. Returning to the general theme we were discussing, this type of reality that we face is indeed an urban reality that has been transformed very rapidly, as far as I could tell by consulting various architect colleagues, but also others who do not have specific expertise in terms of architecture yet who are equipped with a type of fairly sophisticated culture that is in general very successful. It is a kind of success

that corresponds with a widespread appreciation on which I drew to try to figure out from which elements of content they derived. Also because in some ways, with respect to the history of Milan, we say better things about the modern Milan and, referring to what occurred in the postwar period, Milan had the distinctive features that made it recognizable and appreciated internationally and globally. For example, for the fact that the Grattacielo Pirelli had been realized during those years, an architecture of which only Milan could boast, the result of collaboration between Gio Ponti, Pier Luigi Nervi, and other personalities of various Milanese professions that, put together, produced this masterpiece, which belonged and belongs only in Milan, due to its very precise and distinctive architectural features. The other greatly recognizable element in the Milan urban landscape was represented by the Torre Velasca that, as had been identified by the Daily Telegraph as one of the ugliest buildings in the world, is also a work of obvious architectural originality, produced by the Milanese studio BBPR, cultivating a historicist approach, essentially the wish of Ernesto Nathan Rogers, who many of you have surely studied and indirectly known. A lot of built towers become as thiner as they are taller, while the Torre Velasca is just the opposite and is constituted by a lower body of more modest proportions, topped by this large head. The reference to the architecture of castle towers, reinterpreted in a modern key, is in some ways an architectural paradox from the point of view of its static composition, but also this building has a specific and unique character of which only Milan could boast. The urban reality that we observe today in Milan could be found in any city in the world, and thus Milan has in some ways put these types of distinctive elements that distinguish it in the background, and it has appropriated other architectural elements that put it however in competition and in direct confrontation with other cities of similar scale and size. This theme of transformation doesn’t only represent an aesthetic phenomenon, but is also a factor that has to do with the process of urban marketing, that I personally disdain, at least the term, but that inevitably has its own significance. So much so that this reality has been financed with investment funds that were part of the sovereign fund of Qatar that appropriated it at 100%. The relationship that exists between the fact that there has been this massive purchase and the way in which it has developed and is developing Milan is an aspect to be considered with attention. Are we dealing with a problematic and troublesome fact, or does it represent a resource? Of course, we must think about it a little more deeply: many consider it an asset because it is believed that the fact that this investment was made will make new economic resources available for other interventions, promoting a more dynamic scenario

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from an economic standpoint. And thus it is considered in an absolutely positive light. However, with respect to the issue we are discussing, I want to point out an effect that, in my opinion, is not being considered with due care. Milan has an historic center composed of the Piazza del Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza della Scala, and Castello Sforzesco, and then there are other ancillary spaces that contribute to forming it, but I would say that its strong structure is basically this. In this limited context, even historically, the political and administrative power, the religious power with the Archbishop’s residence, and the castle in the past as the seat of the military fortress and today important from a cultural standpoint, because it is a very important museum. Then a short distance away, there is the Ca’ Granda, today one of the most important Milanese universities that in the past was a largest public hospital. This reference of centrality, ever since the intervention of Porta Nuova was realized, has been moving quickly towards this new zone that has become the site of many events related to important matters and commitments for Milan that are held here, while in the past, only a few years ago before this intervention was finished, these would have surely been held at the Piazza del Duomo or Castello Sforzesco. How do we read this transfer of the center? Surely as an expropriation or at least transfer and adjustment of contents and values with respect to the history of Milan. Otherwise, are there other facts that are becoming manifest, that are asserting themselves and giving a different meaning to this transfer of contents? In my opinion, there is a very important fact represented by the metropolitan area

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that must be taken into account. Because if we really think about it, while the centrality of an urban area such as the City of Milan may effectively have as reference the Piazza del Duomo, and other directly related spatial elements, and we get there via the subway and through this there’s also the means of urban transport and all the main roads converging, but when you think of the metropolitan area, this system of centrality no longer works. This is because the mobility at the scale of the 134 municipalities that form the metropolitan area and accessibility to its own center of reference have a way of manifesting themselves in completely different terms, using regional rail lines, because Milan also has to express a strong centrality not only regionally but also nationally. Thus, the fact that in this context there is the Garibaldi Station, where all the regional, bypass, and urban transport systems converge, including high speed rail, with substantially different accessibility and mobility related to the territorial scale, this transfer of the sense of the value of centrality takes on a totally different meaning. We are faced with two different scales of centrality: a centrality that is expressed at the level of the municipal city of Milan, and a second which is expressed in face of a reality that corresponds with the greater metropolitan area. What we are led to consider with respect to these observations that I propose in order to reflect on and possibly, if you want, also to discuss, that which I’m asking myself about and asking you about, is whether you think that this process of transformation and reformulation of the references of centrality has been governed over or not. To me, it seems like it was not governed over at all, and that it simply occurred as a result of economic and specu-

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DAVIDE BORSA With a degree in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on Cesare Brandi, published under the title Le radici della critica di Cesare Brandi (2000), Borsa is a researcher in architectural conservation. He is a correspondent for the Giornale dell’Architettura and has written for Arte Architettura Ambiente, Arcphoto, ‘Ananke, and Il Giornale dell’Arte. He is currently working on contributions for the international seminar “Theory and Practice in Conservation – A Tribute to Cesare Brandi”(Lisbon 2006), for the study day “Brandi and Architecture” (Syracuse 2006), for the book Razionalismo lariano with the essay “Eisenman/Terragni: dalla analogia del linguaggio alla metafora del testo” (Eisenman/Terragni: From the Analogy of Language to the Metaphor of the Text) (2010), and for the publication Guerra monumenti ricostruzione. Architetture e centri storici italiani nel secondo conflitto mondiale (2011). He edited the volume Memoria e identità del luogo. Il progetto della memoria (2012). At the Politecnico di Milano, he collaborates in the teaching of the courses of History of Contemporary Architecture, Theory of Restoration, Architectural and Urban Composition, and in the Restoration and Architectural Design Labs.

Silvano Tintori, Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Carlo Bertelli, Vittorio Sgarbi, Maria Teresa Florio, Amedeo Bellini, Philippe Daverio, Augusto Rossari, Bruno Reichlin Ugo Carughi, Roberto Mascazzini, Sergio Poretti, Antonella Ranaldi Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Davide Borsa, Attilio Stocchi, Andrea Bruno, Giorgio Fiorese, Gabriella Guarisco, Stefano Pizzi, Angelo Torricelli, Luca Monica Vittorio Sgarbi, Richard Ingersoll, Luca Beltrami Gadola, Rolando Mastrodonato Roberto Cuda, Jacopo Muzio, Nicolò Ornaghi, Francesco Zorzi, Vincenzo Onida, Alessandro Azzoni, Mariette Schiltz

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The Eclipse of the Region DAVIDE BORSA

It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate Milan from the image of Milan, the reality from the rhetoric, the real from the fictional. But does the fiction adhere to the territory? It seems difficult to realize the project of a reconciliation that would celebrate the passage from modern to Postmodern without a bloody neoliberal ritual imposing the destruction of the symbols of a democratic, cooperative Milan, of its call to evolved social democracy that made it the cradle of reformism. A place capable of reconciling growth with equity and social progress beyond an exclusively territorial perspective, but rather contributing to the “Italian miracle” through its projection outward toward the world: “New York has many skyscrapers like the Pirelli, some taller, others less beautiful...” Having accomplished the prophecy of civilization, having set down the plows and tribal rituals of the rural civilization, and extinguished the industrial age of technicians and machines, we find that in the late Postmodernist dominion of finance capital the margins of that portion of civilization are now increasingly narrowing, ones that should have instead flourished under the banner of democracy. On the wings of rationality and reason, those delicate butterflies, we are trying to ride the now impossible dialectic between the “political” and the masters of finance, desperately looking for a new alternative social imaginary to neoliberal Darwinism. Bert Theis has re-raised the issue of active citizenship with the antagonistic resistance of fight specific. Isola, una storia neo-liberale italiana di Isola Art Center (Isola, A Neoliberal Italian History of the Isola Art Center) presents this story of (extra)ordinary gentrification, the recent wound of an (ex-)working-class neighborhood of Milan. The end of the center-periphery dialectic through a downward and upward leveling, the crumbling of borders, and “regional” territories seen as spheres of practices and legitimation, coincides with a disproportionate emergence of the symbolic and with an equal dispersion of the reality principle, in order to submit to the discursive regimes of the current indiscriminate fiction, territorial and economic policy, still attuned to glamour and decimal growth. Impossible to identify and to take a census of (but also to separate) boundaries, create reliable maps, distinguish the symptom from the cause. Through a renewed anthropological interest, atlases, maps, and guides are proliferating that seek to establish a multi-faceted image of the contemporary urban in the act of boiling, festering, deconstruction, and fibrillation. Like an amoeba, Milan expands into the hinterland; it continues a process of 20 years of progressive deregulation and technicist bureaucratic expropriation of planning. Renouncing any kind of direct or indirect public control of the morphological transformations and transitions of the city, one barely succeeds in occasionally focusing the problem of giving

character and organicity to a now threadbare idea of the xx Century Forma Urbis, even less through the triumph of the fin-de-siècle approximation, assisted by a borrowed historicism and an aesthetic and cultural provincialism. Despite everything and in spite of this, one discovers that one of the first “cities of art” that merited a “modern” has now become “ancient,” although denied in each of its forms, primarily from the planning that has abandoned any morphological aesthetic ambitions often to adapt to a medietas bordering on mediocritas. Not only has it often failed to elaborate or renew its own lexicon, if not identitarian, but it has bent to the worst globalized stereotype, doing away with any idea of urban design, of a consistent reconnection with its own tradition and memory. The fruits of the last season of Milanese professionalism, through contrast and difference, have become indisputable masterpieces, even the most controversial ones, legitimizing Bicocca itself, the Portello... works that all fell under the coherent mythic framework of reinforced concrete. This history has to be put into relation with those who still cultivate, often far from the spotlight, the possibility of a renewed second tradition, liberated from the homage/rebellion dualism with respect to the founding fathers, without giving in to the pressures of media conformism and to the political-cultural validation of product design and the architecture of consumption. The “region” as the design theme of the periphery and of the metropolitan area represents for architecture the challenge of ferrying quality beyond the aristocratic aura of a historic center often overshadowed by commercial banality, in order to build new bases of working-class urban sprawl. The battle is being fought along the new frontiers colonized by urban sprawl while the historical city hit by the post-industrial transition continues emptying itself of functions and abandoning spaces, infrastructure, and established types, challenging the new that advances: Nuovi Clienti (New Clients) completes an analysis of its latest Milanese stratifications in relation to the evolution of the client, from the contracted urban planning of Milano da bere and of Ligresti up the uncontrolled explosion of today’s territorial marketing. It is on the scale of urban design that the architecture-culture relationship has cracked and failed despite the desperate attempt to recover the autonomy of an apodictic authorship, outside of the shared and legitimized public project passing solely through the strategies of product design, architecture signed as an exclusive luxury. For the Expo, a “spontaneous” project in the end with no “signature,” the abandonment and the abandonment of the even discussed project for the former Falck area of Sesto San Giovanni by Renzo Piano, not to mention the many other examples that speak to us of a difficult relationship in

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BBPR, Monument to the victims of concentration camps at Monumental Cemetery, Milan (1946)

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Ph. Marco Introini

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Architecture Schools Roundtable, Corinna Morandi, Luigi Spinelli, Workshop Terraviva Simona Galateo, Pier Federico Caliari, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Architecture and the Arts: New Synergies for the City, Profession? Designer, Bartolomeo Corsini Domus Academy, IED Multiform Modern Naba Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano, Istituto Marangoni on page 208: Opening of the conferences On the Academy - Schools and Research (ph. above, left) Roundtable Architecture and the Arts: New Synergies for the City (ph. above, right) Review of the OC International Summer School directed by Guya Bertelli and Carlos Garcia Vรกzquez (ph. below)

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Architecture Schools Roundtable GIANANDREA BARRECA, LORENZO DEGLI ESPOSTI, MARCO MORANDOTTI, EMILIO PIZZI, ANGELO TORRICELLI GRATTACIELO PIRELLI, 05.05.2015

Lorenzo Degli Esposti. Today, the series of lectures begin for Milan, Capital of the Modern, part of the Architecture Pavilion of the EXPO Belle Arti by Vittorio Sgarbi, initiated by the Lombardy Region in collaboration with the Triennale di Milano, in this unusual and incredible space of the Belvedere E. Jannacci of the Grattacielo Pirelli. This pavilion is dedicated to a figure who unfortunately left us last July at the age of 99, the architect Guglielmo Mozzoni. The lecture series begins with this roundtable on Milan-area architecture schools: we will have a discussion with Angelo Torricelli (Dean of the School of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano), Emilio Pizzi (Dean of the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano), Gianandrea Barreca (scientific advisor of the Master in Urban Vision & Architectural Design) and Marco Morandotti (President of the degree course in Architectural Engineering, Università degli Studi di Pavia). My question is very simple: why should a student come here to study architecture, what is the cultural project of each of these schools, what are the objectives for the future, and what might be the synergies between the various structures. Angelo Torricelli. Hello – even if Lorenzo Degli Esposti’s question is seemingly simple, in reality it is challenging and complex. The word “academy” is usually attributed a slightly pedantic meaning, as if academy meant a place where models were repeated. I am absolutely in favor of the academy, and I will explain why in a moment. Then there is the word “school,” which may have much and very little meaning. It makes sense if, instead of thinking of the term using the institutional interpretation, one thinks about school using the meaning that this word has always had, both in the art world and in the scientific world. “School” means that there is a group of people who recognize each other in some way, who have points of view that are not necessarily shared but at least understood. If one speaks of the school of Raphael, everyone understands very well to what one is referring. We have spoken several times about architecture school in Milan, and we are not all in complete agreement on what that might mean. Yet, when Lorenzo was speaking earlier of Milan, Capital of the Modern, I think we are many, however, who consider that there is a school of Milan in architecture. And because of this, I believe there are reasons why it may be interesting for some young people to undertake their architecture studies in Milan. If in Milan there did not exist a school of architecture, I think it would be perfectly foolish to enroll in a faculty or whatever you call it today, where there is nothing more than a collection of bureaucratically devised courses. For my part, after many years of work as a working architect, as an instructor, as a dean, I was more and more convinced of the idea that architecture is a bit like cuisine, not because

there’s the Expo now, but because it is local while the same time addressed to everyone, thus even internationally. The school of Milan has always had a character that is very specifically rooted and that has very precise characteristics, closely linked to what Milan is as a city, as a metropolis. Its own very specific way of being a metropolis. And at the same time, it is open to international influences, so much so that even during the Renaissance, in past centuries, many architects worked in Milan without being from Milan. The Palazzo Marino was the work of Galeazzo Alessi, who was from Genoa. Those from Ticino have always been a part of architecture in Milan, as have those from Como. Yet it has always happened that by coming to Milan, artists do something that would not have done had they not been in Milan: it happened to Bramante, to Leonardo da Vinci, to Filarete. This is what is characteristic of Milan and the school of Milan. I will try to connect the things that I have said so far to the most relevant aspect of how, over the course of all these years, we have sketched out our way of teaching architecture. Throughout the world, architecture is surely the discipline for which the most amount of time is spent discussing how to teach it. It has always been like that, at least since there have been schools of architecture. Without polemical intentions, the first university of architecture was started by Camillo Boito in Milan, fifty years earlier than in Rome in the 1920s. The “special school” for civilian architects was founded by Boito in 1865, two years after the founding of the Politecnico di Milano. The intertwining of what was the academic tradition of Brera with what was the new modern school created to build the modern Milan, that is, the Politecnico, takes place there and takes place much earlier than in the rest of Italy, where architecture arrives but with a completely different method, which has much less to do with the idea of building a city, which belonged just to the polytechnic project and what Camillo Boito does immediately in an intuitively brilliant way. So how does one teach architecture effectively? To teach architecture, there are above all two key ingredients: first of all, it is necessary to have architects who are able to be architects and who then teach what they know how to do. Those who do not know how do a certain thing can obviously not teach anyone else how to do it, even if they spend their time in pedagogical disquisition; and incidentally, they have the defect of thinking that college students are children, whereas college students are instead young adults. So, the teaching of architecture is absolutely not a pedagogical problem. It is a relatively simple problem that we have tried to configure with an idea, which is an idea that is almost physical. At the center of it, there is something called a “design lab,” which is something that reproduces, approx-

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Yvonne Farrell Ph. Daniele Zerbi Franco Purini and Lorenzo Degli Esposti Ph. Daniele Zerbi

Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Rafael Moneo, Peter Eisenman Ph. Maurizio Petronio Max Dudler Ph. Maurizio Petronio

Architecture

Marco Biraghi, Marco Brizzi, Alessandro Armando, Valerio Paolo Mosco, Giovanni La Varra, Valter Scelsi, Luca Molinari, Cherubino Gambardella Benno Albrecht, Maurizio Oddo, Leonardo Caffo, Vittorio Pizzigoni, Matteo Ghidoni Ado Franchini, Giovannella Bianchi, Franco Porto, Francesco Gnecchi Ruscone, Saverio and Aimaro Isola Renato Rizzi, Mario Botta, Marco Casamonti, Aldo Nolli Manuel Aires Mateus, José Ignacio Linazasoro, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, Christián Undurraga

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Conversation about the Modern LORENZO DEGLI ESPOSTI, PETER EISENMAN, RAFAEL MONEO GRATTACIELO PIRELLI, 02.10.2015

Lorenzo Degli Esposti. Today, we have two special guests, who I thank very much for being here with us, for the cycle Milan, Capital of the Modern. They are educators and scholars, as well as architects. They have been always reflecting upon the sense of their work, while having built important buildings all over the world. We have with us today Peter Eisenman and Rafael Moneo, for one of the major events of our program. The title Conversation about the Modern reflects the sense of the whole program: Milano capitale del Moderno/ Milan Capital of the Modern. The “modern” is the reason that we have with us today Moneo and Eisenman, who transformed the idea of it, working on its language, its syntax, from the early works up until today. Buildings, authors, and cities: the idea of this program is that the modern, like many other periods, has been thriving through these poles. In any case, even considering obvious influences, many cities can be considered capitals of the modern, and one of them is Milan. When we started our program here, I said we have five works that I consider emblematic: five Milanese works that are perfectly known by our two guests. We have one of them from the 1930s, Terragni’s Casa del Fascio; three in the Reconstruction period, Moretti on Corso Italia, Ponti, this place where we are, which I choose to have as an example of the second phase of modernity in Milan, and Viganò’s Marchiondi, a major Milanese problem. And then the last in the late 1960s and the beginning of 1970s: Rossi’s Gallaratese. Five major works that represent the transformation of the idea of the modern in Milan, and not only. Today I’m very curious to understand how these ideas have been seen from New York, from Madrid, other two cities where the modern developed. I give the word to Moneo. Rafael Moneo. When I come to Milan, I resist to see it only in terms of modernity; obviously there is a lot of what we call modern architecture from the 1920s and the 1930s up to now, but what impresses me is precisely seeing how the city keeps a sense of continuity, it doesn’t go in an uncontrolled way. From the xvii Century and xviii Century until now, it actually matters to see that it is a city in which there are so many architectures, not only the Architettura della città, as it could be said by Rossi, but it is also a city of so many architects. They are the architects who created the city, just following this continuity, following this history, that is marked in the city from the Roman times. This is to me what actually matters. I will try to go further away from the term of modernity, into the term of architecture. Peter Eisenman. I want to recall, not for nostalgic reasons, my first day in Italy, in the summer of 1961, which is almost 55 years ago. I entered Italy through Chiasso, then Cernobbio, Como. I came upon in front of the Casa del Fascio: it was called the Casa del Popolo at the time. You couldn’t use

the word necessarily “fascio,” and a colleague who was traveling with me said I had an epiphany in front of this building. I’m still in that moment, and I am still – with my students and colleagues – trying to understand what was about that building that made such an impression. Because I’ve seen Le Corbusier in Paris, I’ve seen Mies van der Rohe, the Weissenhof, I’ve seen Frank Lloyd Wright up close, and I never had seen anything like the Casa del Fascio. So I was trying, throughout my career, through working, through writing etc. to explain to myself what it was that I saw and which remains very fixed in my mind. The second day in Italy, Colin Rowe and I drove to Montagnana, where there was a Palladian Villa. I had never seen a Palladian Villa before. It was 32°C – it was very hot. “I’m going to have a beer in this café he said, “You go out there and stand in front of that villa and remain there until you can tell me something you can’t see.” I had never seen a Palladio; I probably had never seen a Renaissance building. I thought: “What are they talking about? What can’t I see? What can I tell him about something I can’t see?” I stood there for two hours, and he said: “I don’t want to know about the rustication, I don’t want to talk about the three-layer façade, I don’t want to hear about the Venetian windows.” I began to understand, after the Casa del Fascio and this first Palladian Villa, what they meant for architecture: architecture wasn’t just what was present, it was also what wasn’t there: that is, the presence of what one calls absence. To me, that is nothing to do with modernity, is has nothing to do with style; it has to do with something that causes architecture to be different than building, that causes architecture to be part of culture. I finally published my book on Palladio, which is called Palladio Virtuel; that is, the virtual nature of what architecture is about. When I realized that for architecture to be part of culture, which it is, like poetry, film, music, art, and literature. It has to be something other than building. In other words, it has to be about its own being. If it is just solving a problem, determining functions of a laboratory or a school or a house, it’s not doing architecture. When it is something more, then it is more than just being, it is the sign of being. Then we know we are in architecture. I don’t think that changes over time. I think style changes etc. but architecture is something that shows the sign of its being and how it becomes. And architecture bears that trace of its own difficulty, and it’s not something that is easy or facile. I think it has nothing to do with what is modern or postmodern or digital or whatever. Architecture is difficult. To just conclude these introductory remarks: if you ask students to write a poem, students can’t write a poem if they have never heard a poem. How can they know what a poem is? They have to read poetry. If you ask students to write an essay, they can’t write an essay if they have never read literature, fiction. To me architecture is the same way: if there are no examples of the

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culture of architecture, it is impossible for students to know what to do. What is wonderful about this country, this city, and the reason why I keep coming back with my students, who are here tonight, is because we don’t have much in the way of architecture in the United States. New York is not one of the great cities of architecture, but if you come to Florence or you come to Milan, you see a lot of architecture. I want to report one other thing that happened to us this past week. I remember from 1961, there was a great painting in Urbino, The Flagellation by Piero della Francesca, and I said to my students, who maybe have never seen Piero della Francesca, that they needed to see that painting. In Florence on Thursday, we got on a bus; we drove this awful drive from Florence to Urbino, through Arezzo and San Sepolcro and Città di Castello. We got to Urbino, it was even raining. We go to see the painting, which is half the size you think. And my students probably thought I was crazy, and we sat in front of the painting for half an hour, just looking at the painting. And then we go back in this bus for three hours and then back to Florence. So for six and an half hours, the students saw one little painting by Piero della Francesca. If you are willing to spend six hours to see something for half an hour, it is something really amazing, I think it’s important. I thought it was important in 1961, and I still think it’s important today and that’s what makes Italy. Because if you stay for three hours in the USA, in Nebraska, in Kansas, you don’t find the Piero, it’s not there. You may not

Eisenman Architects, City of Culture of Galicia Santiago de Compostela (1999-ongoing)

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even find a city between New York and Chicago. I don’t want to talk about these kinds of things, but it’s really important to understand what this country has, what it has had, and what it needs to continue: to paint, to make film, literature, architecture. Especially architecture, because it frames a lot of what we do, so I’m really pleased to be here with my young friend Rafael Moneo, who has been a friend of mine since we first met in Aspen, Colorado, in the spring of 1968, which is almost fifty years ago. We kept talking, we may disagree about Piero. You know, I like Piero, he likes Rosso Fiorentino. But the important thing is that we respect one another as architects and teachers and colleagues and that’s why we are here tonight, so thank you for having us. Rafael Moneo. As Peter said, architecture is something other than building. Behind building something happens that allows us to speak about architecture. I will say that when one comes to Milano, one thinks about the hugeness, the imposingness of its buildings. Muzio would be a paradigmatic example of that. After the WWI he provided the city with its phantom of metaphysical architecture, still so present in the city, regarding so many things that have happened. Milan stands behind Muzio and even behind Muzio’s changing career. When you discover the buildings here, you realize that this city gives to its buildings a sense of belonging to the city itself. I see that happening when, at the beginning of the 1970s, all the modernists tried to do something so different.

Ph. Manuel Gonzalez Vicente Courtesy of Eisenman Architects

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Indeed they did, but the city absorbed what made these buildings to be against the matter of the city. And I’m talking of the architects around Terragni, like Bottoni, Lingeri, Figini and Pollini and so many others. After the Second World War, the scene changes radically and we see even those architects who were working in the 1930s to change mind and to do something that, for people of my generation, still remains as good as the discovery of Milan was for us. They were the days of the people like Rogers and other architects. All these architects, also Gardella, Albini and Caccia Dominioni and so many others, needed to react after the war, needed to value again what the old traditional city was, and made all these works of architecture, that we could label as the Milan architecture that we knew. I’d like to say I seek good reasons for understanding that architecture is something inseparable from the city: architecture stands and comes together with the city. This materiality they have allows buildings to try not only to have their specific meaning, but gives buildings this sense of being part of something, a bit further away than what individuals would have to do. In the end, we perhaps nowadays think that architecture actually beats too much in the hands of the architects alone. Yet it is the city that allows architects to get this sense of what the city provides, unity in individual works of the single architect. To enjoy this double relationship, that means this common history as one of architects and cities. Lorenzo Degli Esposti. If, on the one hand, modernity and style are not called to have implications for Peter, who focuses on architecture as autonomous single works, even if bounded in time, in succession, on the other hand place and the city seem to be very important for Rafael, in terms of continuity and as references for architects. Peter Eisenman. An interesting philosophical problem is recorded in the late xx Century in French Post-structuralism, which I think is important to understand for architecture. The question is the metaphysical project, and when I was working with the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, he said to me: “You know Peter, the really interesting project of architecture is that it is the locus of the metaphysics of presence. In other words, you can’t have architecture without presence being built. You can’t also do away with this metaphysical aspect, and that’s why so many philosophers, current day philosophers, have tried to understand the architectural project, because it is in fact the ‘sine qua non’ of the metaphysics of presence. Without presence there is no architecture, without metaphysics there is no architecture.” I think we have to understand that it is not merely function, it’s not merely building, it is not merely details. It’s all these things, plus the metaphysical project. I want to think about Milan, because for me the best piazza in the whole Italian peninsula lies about thirty kilometers west of Milan, and if

Eisenman Architects, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin (1998-2005)

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Courtesy of Eisenman Architects

you have not been there, and I know a lot of Italians have not been there, I think it’s really important tomorrow morning to drive along the canal to a town called Vigevano. It’s not the piazza of nostalgia, it’s not San Gimignano, it’s not San Marco, it’s not the Piazza del Campo in Siena, it’s not any of these supposedly popular piazzas. The reason is that it’s really a very difficult place to understand, and I think it was originally designed by Bramante. One of the great things about it, it is on its eastern side: it has a church and it has a three-part entrance to the church, but there is a forth bay. This forth bay is the road that runs to the piazza. It’s an amazing feeling that you see the four-bays very similar to Brunelleschi’s four-bays in the original Santo Spirito in Florence. I’d like to attribute Vigevano to Milan, because to me, only when I come to Milan, I go to Vigevano. All of you who are here and have never been, you are missing something – I think it is interesting in terms of the urban and in terms of our constructing in urban space. For me it’s the primary example. Rafael Moneo. I am one of those who has never been to Vigevano: they said we are going tomorrow morning. I’ve been reading Vigevano for so many years, since I was able to draw his profile, to see how the long piazza with the cathedral is built, with those entrances, with all these complexities. I think that now the conversation is starting to be precise. I would like to hear why Peter thought that was Milanese, or that it belongs to this sophistication, that comes with Caramuel, that comes with all those who actually worked out in Vigevano. But I would like to listen to his reasons for why he believes this is Milanese. Obviously, Milanese culture, the culture of Lombardy or whatever name, if you want Mediolanum, is the way of withdrawing from Rome to Milan, when it started to conquer all these Po Valley plenitudes. I will say that, I guess, Peter is going to bring this argument just to emphasize what was the soul of this space of Vigevano.

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DEGLI ESPOSTI ARCHITETTI Directors: Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Paolo Lazza - Milan

Degli Esposti Architetti is a leading partnership practicing architecture, urbanism and infrastructure design, founded in 2006 by Lorenzo Degli Esposti and Paolo Lazza, based in Milan. Degli Esposti Architetti’s unique approach to design is the outcome of continuous research and practice, from early work in collaboration with the primary figures of the xx Century architecture and thanks to the technical and practical knowledge inherited as a legacy of the long activity of the Studio di Architettura Degli Esposti, up to the current activities and works. Lorenzo Degli Esposti and Paolo Lazza have been owners and directors of the partnership since its foundation. Stefano Antonelli was owner and director from 2011 to 2013. Francesco Degli Esposti is joining the partnership in 2017. In 2007 and 2008, Degli Esposti Architetti was selected by the Triennale di Milano within the 30 firms of the city invited to the Open Studio event. In 2012, Degli Esposti Architetti was selected by the École Spéciale d’Architecture de Paris, in a batch of 50 leading international young firms invited to the Pavillon Spéciale initiative. In the last ten years, Degli Esposti Architetti has been included in the top 100 Italian firms according to their annual income (source: national newspaper IlSole24Ore). The principal projects in which the firm Degli Esposti Architetti is involved include the Residenze Carlo Erba, an urban block formerly occupied by the headquarter of Rizzoli Editore, then by Rinascente and the Zurich Insurance Group; several real estate developments in Milan, such as the residential complexes Umbria98, Sala12, and DeAmicis16. Among the completed buildings are those of Paisiello10 and Cassala55 in Milan, the Il Mulino complex in Cormano, and the upgrading of the historic center of Colnago. Degli Esposti Architetti was a consultant for the architectural aspects for the winning consortium of the Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda – second lot. Degli Esposti Architetti regularly takes part in international design bids and competitions, having earned more than thirty awards during the ten years of the studio’s activity. Projects by Degli Esposti Architetti and the cultural and research activities of its owners (also within or in collaboration with organizations such as the Politecnico di Milano, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, the Triennale di Milano, AUFO, the Tulpenmanie Gallery etc.) have been published in major periodicals and architecture magazines.

Paisiello10, Building for apartments, studios and garages, 10 via Paisiello, Milano (2006-11)

Ph. Michele Nastasi

Colnago historic center (2006-08)

Palazzo Cassala55, Milan (2006-13)

Ph. L. Degli Esposti

Ph. A. Fontana

Residenze Carlo Erba, Milan (ongoing)

Ph. S. De Vita

Residenze Umbria98, Milano (ongoing)

Ph. P. Lazza

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Published by Actar Publishers 440 Park Ave. South, 17th Fl New York, NY 10016 USA Editor Lorenzo Degli Esposti Graphic Design & Digital Production Actar Production Degli Esposti Architetti Editorial Coordination Degli Esposti Architetti Ricardo Devesa Translations Stephanie Carwin Printing and Binding Tiger Printing The editor and Actar Publishers thanks all the architects and scholars featured as well as the photographers who have brought the work to these pages. All rights reserved © of the edition, Actar Publishers, 2017 © of the texts, their authors © of the photographs, as indicated by “Courtesy of ” in the captions and the photographers and authors of the works of architecture where they are entitled. ISBN 978-1945150-70-8

Distribution Actar D Inc. New York 440 Park Ave. South, 17th Fl New York, NY 10016 T +1 212 966 2207 F +1 212 966 2214 salesnewyork@actar-d.com Barcelona Roca i Batlle 2 08023 Barcelona T +34 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owners must be obtained. The editor and Actar Publishers are especially grateful to all the image providers. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of images published herein. Actar Publishers would appreciate being informed of any omissions in order to make due acknowledgement in future editions of the book.

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Milan Capital of the

Modern Edited by Lorenzo Degli Esposti