Master Files 2023

Composizione 57 12, Manlio Rho

ELEMENT OF PAVILION BUILDING REFERENCES

VIERENDEEL BEAM STRUCTURAL REFERENCE

The shape of the pavilion is composed in different blocks, organised according to the painting of the italian master Manlio Rho. In his painting he characterized all the shapes with different color and sizes. In the floating pavilion for the city of Como the design follows the same rule and work also with the context going to disposed the single block according to specific point of view, especially on the rationalist part of the city, on the historical parto of Comom on the other side of the lake and on the city of Cernobbio.

Also the roof follows the same rule of different shape in chaotic order.

The Italian Powerboat Association of Como Lake organized, since the 1920, sports events on Como Lake. For the importance that it was acquiring, the architect Pietro Lingeri who was member of the Association, he thought to a project concerning the new headquarters.

The site chosen for the construction of the building, purchased in 1931, is located in Tremezzo close to the lake and bordering the mouth of the river Bolvedro. The architecture is inspired by that of a ship whose structure is designed to ensure maximum functionality, such as the semicircular terrace that juts out into the lake, which was conceived as the preferred viewing spot for speedboat races

The shape of the pavilion is composed in different blocks, organised according to the painting of the italian master Manlio Rho. In his painting he characterized all the shapes with different color and sizes. In the floating pavilion for the city of Como the design follows the same rule and work also with the context going to disposed the single block according to specific point of view, especially on the rationalist part of the city, on the historical parto of Comom on the other side of the lake and on the city of Cernobbio.

Also the roof follows the same rule of different shape in chaotic order.

The geometry of the new church, with a rectangular plan, retains the memory of the previous building.

The parish premises and the rectory are articulated around a central patio. The liturgical hall has a double height and is surrounded by volumes of lower height: the presbytery, the working chapel, the side nave, the penitentiary and the baptistery. The project was developed following criteria of environmental sustainability and the structures are made of X-LAM wood. The interior and exterior of the building have also been the subject of careful lighting design.

THE GOLDEN RATIO RATIONALIST REFERENCE

ANALYSIS OF THE SITE 1:15000

PROJECT AREA

SPACES AND LIGHT ELEMENT OF THE PROJECT

CERNOBBIO

VILLA AMILA Pietro Lingeri / 1927

PISCINE LECA DE PALMEIRA / Alvaro Siza / 1966

CHIESA DI VARIGNANO Tamassociati 2019

SECTION

1:100

SECTION B-B’ 1:100

SOUTH ELEVATION 1:100

WEST ELEVATION 1:100

VIEW FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE PAVILION

VIEW OF THE GROUND FLOOR

ROOF PLAN

FIRST PLAN

GROUND PLAN

STRUCTURE OF THE FLOATING PAVILION DETAIL OF THE PROJECT

1933 V

The 5th triennale opened in may 1933 in the new milanese premises of the palazzo dell’arte, designed by Giovanni Muzio. Architecture is the protagonist with an exhibition dedicated to modern european architecture and italian rationalism, recognised by the regime as the country’s technical and cultural avant-garde.

The exhibition of decorative arts sees the participation, with wall paintings, mosaics and plastic works, of major italian artists including Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati, Giorgio de Chirico and Achille Funi, coordinated by Mario Sironi.

The first Milan triennale marked the beginning of a fortunate relationship with sempione park, where forty temporary constructions of an experimental nature were created, designed by famous italian architects including Figini and Pollini, Giuseppe Terragni, Piero Portaluppi, Pietro Lingeri, the BBPR group and Piero Bottoni.

1936 VI TRIENNALE DI MILANO

The programme of the edition, defined by edoardo persico and giuseppe pagano, sees the link between the fascist regime and modernist architecture consolidated.

Pagano designed the outdoor pavilion, destroyed by bombing during the second world war, and a glass-concrete tower that serves as the entrance to the exhibition.

Parco Sempione hosts an open-air cinema-theatre and the fountain by Mario Radice and Cesare Cattaneo. foreign presences are valuable with the french section curated by le corbusier, the finnish section by alvar aalto and the swiss section by Max Bill. The pride of this edition are the international urban planning exhibition, the exhibition of building systems and the exhibition of ancient goldsmiths with an installation by franco Albini.

The dynamic relationship between ancient symbolism and modern form was pursued in numerous installations at successive triennials, such as the 1936 sala d’onore designed by Edoardo Persico, Marcello Nizzoli, and Giancarlo Palanti with the sculptor Lucio Fontana. although ephemeral, these installations were significant in their propagation of images that reconciled the ancient and the modern.

1942 E42/ESPOSIZIONE UNIVERSALE DI ROMA

The last great fascist initiative in architecture and urban planning concentrated on a world’s fair for 1941, thirty years after rome’s first hosting.

The exposition of 1942, or “e42,” was designed to avoid the usual commercial features and focus on elevated spiritual issues such as the progress of humanity.

“The olympics of civilization, yesterday, today and tomorrow” was the theme adopted by the exposition’s general commissioner,Vittorio Cini. Marcello Piacentini was commissioned by cini in 1936 to lay out e42.

Manifesti pubblicitari. Lagomarsino, Anni 40’ Manifesto per Kardex. R. muratore, 1940 Schizzi progettuali per mostra dei coloranti acna nel padiglione montecatini. Fiera Campionaria di Milano Bianchetti & Nizzoli, VI triennale di Milano. Columbus Archive, 1936

Viaggio Nello Spazio. Bruno Munari, 1932 Advertising plates from programma almanacco dell’italia veloce. Milan: Edizioni Metropoli, 1930

Poster advertising men’s cloths. Alexander Schawinsky, 1928 In the name of the law. Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, 1927

57 12 Pavilion

Via Per Cernobbio 21, 20100

Como CO

T+34 3101000100 5712pavilion.it

Opening hours

Orari di apertura

Tues-Sat 10-18 oclock

Mar-Sab 10-18

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Dom 10-20

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Children (6-18 years)

Bambini (6-18 anni)

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Guided Tour Visite Guidate

Wed-Sun 14-16 pm

Mer-dom 14-16 pm

To book guided tours for groups and schools please contact Per prenotare visite guidate per gruppi e scuole si prega di contattare tours@5712pavilion.it

tracing the bauhaus influence on pre-wwii italian design

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INTRODUCTION:

Harmony in Form is an exhibition dedicated to the breakthroughs in the Italian design influenced by the Bauhaus movement from the second decade of the XX until the ending of World War II.

As certainly there’s not only one exact moment in which the Italian design and the Bauhaus movement come together, in the particular case of this exhibition, the key event chosen for starting the tour will be the grant of the manufacturing rights of the tubular steel furniture designed by Marcel Breuer by the Italian company Columbus. This opened the path for the Italian designers to study closely the works coming from the German school and to make their own original proposals, which would be later presented on the many design exhibitions that would take place all over the country on the following decades.

With this creative boom in all the fields of design in Italy, the big companies make a step forward hiring recognizable figures for imprinting this new modernity into their business, this lead to an incredible array of storefronts that took advantage of new materials, lighting, aesthetics and typography being shared in the expositions.

Advertising played a fundamental role through all these previously discussed events, as it was a channel through which all the products that were being developed at that time were presented to the potential clients with the new innovative tools and campaigns.

The advertisement evolution will function as a connecting thread between the 3 first sections of the exposition and supported by a comprehensive timeline of all the events happening in the wider panorama of Italy in the years previous to the second world war.

The exposition will cover until this point and no further. This because the events that followed forced Italy and the whole continent to shift perspective into the reconstruction and after this a new period of economic development. This big stop is very much required to highlight everything that was achieved until these years, that is by no means few.

German Section, Werkbund Exhibition, Paris 1930. Metal viewing bridge over swimming bath, designed by Walter Gropius with furniture by Marcel Breuer.

German Section, Werkbund Exhibition, Paris 1930. Communal areas of a multi-storey collective apartment block,designed by Walter Gropius with furniture by Marcel Breuer.

Angelo Bianchetti, Cesare Pea, negozio lagomarsino ad ancona, 1942 (da Bianchetti, Pea 1949).

Angelo Bianchetti, Cesare Pea, negozio lagomarsino a Padova 1941 (Fondo angelo Bianchetti, archivio Jan Jacopo Bian- chetti, Canzo).

1. THE COLUMBUS FURNITURE

In this first section of the exhibition, the connection between the German designs by Breuer and the Italian industrial expertise take place through the grant of the production rights from Swiss furniture distribution and production company Wohnbedarf.

Introducing these designs into the Milanese lines of production brought closer the works coming from the Bauhaus and the ones by the Italian designers, which had already started experimenting with these new industrial materials. This observation of the foreign designs encouraged the local architects and designers to experiment in a wider array of ways and to introduce their original design into the Columbus catalogue.

4 Models of the Columbus catalogue were selected for the exposition, 1 designed by Marcel Breuer and 3 original designs by Italian architects and designers.

The first model in display is the 34E chair by Marcel Breuer, particularly selected by the design principles that define this section of the exposition: the continuity of the steel in a closed

loop, the simple leather panels that compose the seat and the backrest of the chair, and the minimalistic reinforcement elements.

The Second model, the 1Fa by Ercole Faccioli, produced in 1933 is selected as a good example of the applied principles of the previously mentioned model into an upholstered self sprung armchair.

The third model, the 195PA umbrella stand of 1934 was brought as an example of the variety of products in the Columbus catalogue and the very deep involvement of figures as important as Giuseppe Pagano, that worked in that moment as the director of Casabella magazine.

Finally, the last model of this section and of the Columbus steel tube furniture collections is the self sprung armchair designed by Giuseppe Terragni from 1932 to 1936. This armchair with the self support both on the seat and on the backrest put to the test the manufacturing quality of the Milanese factory and the avant-garde designs of figures as important as Terragni himself.

1FA, Ercole Faccioli, 1933. Columbus archive

195PA, Giuseppe Pagano, 1934. Columbus archive

Sant’Elia armchair, Giuseppe Terragni, 1936. Zanotta.

2. THE DESIGN EXHIBITIONS

The meeting ground for innovation in all the areas of design, the European exhibitions and fairs were the perfect place for the new concepts of modern living to be shown to the public.

The German section of the Werkbund exhibition of Paris, 1930 is the starting point and a great example of how the Bauhaus concept of living was presented to the wide European public. This section, designed by Walter Gropius and the furniture by Marcel Breuer communicated the simple, minimalistic and functional properties that the German school was recognized for.

The V Triennale di Milano of 1933, this year taking place in the new building my Muzio took over the Parco Sempione for the exposition of modern living. Terragni designed a full scale project intended for an artist which contained his living quarters and studio. This project, taking care of the orientation, modulation, use of new materials, open, uninterrupted space, double heights and transparency is a very interesting example of the way the rationalists conceived the new ideas of living, all this liked to the intended location of the real project, the Isola Comacina in lake Como.

3 years later, in the VI Triennale of 1936, a much more technical solution to a ordinary problem was presented by Piero Bottoni and Mario Pucci. Something as simple and functional as a waiting room for a doctor’s studio shouldn’t be the place for awkward situations such as being sitting in uncomfortable chairs face to face with ill strangers and then not knowing what door to open when called. A intuitive layout with technologically advanced Columbus armchairs facing all to the same direction, only two doors, modular partitions and a glass block wall with a built in aquarium was the architects’ proposal for this day to day problem.

German Section, Werkbund Exhibition, Paris 1930. Mezzanine gallery, designed by Walter Gropius with furniture by Marcel Breuer.

vvv V Triennale di Milano 1933. Designed by Giuseppe Terragni

Casa per un artista sul lago di Como, V Triennale di Milano 1933. Designed by Giuseppe Terragni

Cross-frame armchair with elastic suspension and foam padding by Columbus for the Sala di attesa per lo studio di un medico, VI Triennale di Milano, 1936.

Sala di attesa per lo studio di un medico , VI Triennale di Milano, 1936.

Piero Bottoni & Mario Pucci

3. THE STORES, PRODUCT DISPLAY

The collaboration between widely known brands and recognizable architects and designers was one of the most fruitful partnerships that were seen in the decades of the 30’s and 40’s. Not only the modern architecture and design influenced the design of the factories, headquarters and residences of the workers, as seen in Ivrea with Figini & Pollini, it also laid the road for the creative minds to experiment with all the studies related to materials, lighting and color coming from the Bauhaus workshops being widely published in international expositions.

The result was one of the most varied and creative array of interior design and product displays by the big names in all types of consumer goods industries.

Starting as now is usual from the Bauhaus, maybe the most comprehensive collection of what was being produced and studied in this school of art and design was the MoMa exposition of 1938 titled “Bauhaus: 1919-1928” in which an extensive collection of works came to light to the international press. This event also works as a starting point to make hypotheses of where may have some of the Italian architects taken their inspiration from.

Starting from the applied concept of transparency in a storefront we have the display by Alexander Schawinsky for a Olivetti store in Torino in 1935. The Swiss designer, alumnus of the Bauhaus himself used this approach as main concept for one of the displays at the store with variability on his mind, in his own words:

“Showcase system of three shaped and colored sliding and folding crystals, for different advertising perspectives, with shop backgrounds.”

The second concept worth to me mentioned is the use of hyperbolic paraboloids made with threads for creating translucent volumes for a Olivetti storefront in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milano in1938. The design was executed by Leonardo Sinisgalli & Giovanni Pintori. Experiments like this one were performed in the sculpture lab of the Bauhaus as early as 1926.

The installation in the Lagormarsino Apuania store in 1942 by Bianchetti & Pea comprises of a 4x4 white grid within which the machines and pictures are exhibited, thus changing the concept of a simple shelve, to a whole compositional element, protagonist of the store. Solutions like this one were previously explored by Gropius himself in multiple exhibitions in the 30’s and also presented by various Italian architects in the fairs an expositions of their country.

The store in Salerno in 1942 also by Bianchetti & Pea combines the conventional numbers present in the calculators of the store with the bold black and white patterns and work as a contrasting and eye catching backdrop for advertising these products.

Pictures of part of the exposition Bauhaus1919-1928, MoMa, 1938. Taken from the MoMa website.

Olivetti Torino store project, 1935. by Alexander Schawinsky

Apuania era dominato dalla presenza di una griglia tridimensionale per il display delle macchine calcolatrici, analoga a quella già proposta da Bianchetti e Pea nei progetti per il negozio Olivetti, ispirata all’allestimento creato da Gropius, in collaborazione con Joost Schmidt, per la sezione dei metalli non ferrosi alla mostra DeutschesVolk-Deutsche Arbeit di Berlino del 1934. Nel negozio di Foggia una composizione grafica, formata dall’incrocio di linee chiare e scure verticali e orizzontali e da cerchi concentrici ruotati uno rispetto all’altro, richiamava gli studi geometrici svolti nel corso preliminare di Josef Albers53 . Un’altra possibile fonte di suggestioni e idee – in particolare per le aste colorate a strisce nei negozi di Pisa, di Foggia e di Padova – si può individuare nella sala della Svizzera allestita da Max Bill allaVITriennale del 1936, un episodio che aveva suscitato all’epoca un notevole interesse54 . Masipossonocoglierealtririmandiadallestimentitemporanei,bastipensareaivolumicilindricialistelli nel negozio di Ancona che riprendevano la soluzione adottata da Bianchetti e Pea nel padiglione dell’Italviscosa alla fiera di Milano del 1940, o ai pannelli del punto vendita di Biella, giocati sul tema formale dellagrigliaedeirettangoli,cheevocavanocomposizionianalogheconcepiteinpiùoccasionidaNizzoli. Non mancavano immagini utilizzate anche nella pubblicità a stampa, come l’ingrandimento del rotolo di carta della addizionatrice svolto sulle pareti e sul soffitto nel negozio di Cremona, o la rosa dei venti in quello di Caserta, mentre in altri casi le figure evocavano il luogo sede del negozio, come il timone utilizzato a Salerno o la stilizzazione di motivi “navali” e “lagunari” adottati nello spazio commerciale di Venezia con risultati piuttosto naïves55 .

Èpurverochenellaprospettivadiprogettoacolori,pubblicatasempredaZveteremichsullepaginedi“Domus”, quell’ambiente appariva più elegante e rarefatto rispetto alla soluzione realizzata. I progettisti – recitavalalungadidascalia–avevanocreatouna«scenografia»,«unasintesideglielementipiùpittoreschidi Venezia»,prolungandoedesaltandoinmodooriginale,«comeinunteatroaccesoetrasfigurato,l’incanto elaquintessenzadellospiritoartisticodiunacittàgloriosa»,peresporrelemacchineLagomarsinoinuna «concentrata realtà magica»56 . Nelvolumedel1949BianchettiePeaalternavanoleimmaginideiloronegoziperlaLagomarsinoaquelle dialcunipuntivenditaprogettatidaBernasconiperlaOlivetti,forseperproporreunpossibileconfronto tralastrategiaadottatadall’aziendadiIvrea–basatasullacreazionedinegozi«eleganti»e«lussuosi»(così è definito dai due progettisti il punto vendita di Bologna)57 – e quella messa in campo da loro, in accordo con il committente, che puntava invece su una comunicazione pubblicitaria più immediata e “popolare”

by Walter Gropius & Joost Schmidt

Olivetti Torino display, 1935. by Alexander Schawinsky

Hot water boilers, gas and water exhibition, Berlin, 1928. by Alexander Schawinsky

Olivetti Galleria Vittorio Emanuele display, 1938. by Leonardo Sinisgalli & Giovanni Pintori.

Master checklist, Bauhaus 1919-1928, Moma, 1936.

Lagomarsino store, Apuania, 1942-1943. by Bianchetti & Pea

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Storia e Futuro / DOI: 10.30682/sef5522b

Fig. 6: angelo Bianchetti, Cesare Pea, negozio lagomarsino a Salerno, 1942 (Fondo angelo Bianchetti, archivio Jan Jacopo Bianchetti, Canzo).

Fig. 7: angelo Bianchetti, Cesare Pea, negozio lagomarsino ad ancona, 1942 (da Bianchetti, Pea 1949).

Lagomarsino store, Salerno, 1942-1943. by Bianchetti & Pea

Master checklist, Bauhaus 1919-1928, Moma, 1936.

Exhibition of non-ferrous metals, Berlin 1934.

V Triennale di Milano Poster, 1933.

L’Ala d’Italia, January 1934. Cover by Bruno Munari

Advertisement brochure, Columbus, 1934. Columbus historical archive.

Manifesto per Kardex, 1940. Cover by R. Muratore.

Advertisement, Lagormasino, 1940.