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Contents 2- 5
Introduction: Radical Design Workshop
6- 7
Workshop phographs
8- 9
Chirsiano Toraldo di Francia, Superstudio, The assignment
10- 13
Students workshop projects
14- 15
Lapo Binazzi, UFO, The assignment
16- 19
Students workshop projects
20- 21
Carlo Caldini, 9999 group, The assignment
22- 25
Students workshop projects
26- 27
Gianni Pettena, The assignment
28- 31
Students workshop projects
Anti-Design Workshop October 15th, 2012
FLORENCE, ITALY – Four of the most influential Italian architects, Cristiano Toraldo Di Francia, Carlo Caldini, Lapo Binazzi and Gianni Pettena, came together for the Florence Institute of Design International’s Sketch Workshop to revisit the Radical Design Movement of the 1960’s. The Radical Design Movement had a significant influence in transforming Italian architecture and interior design and still continues to play a revolutionary role in today’s design concepts. The Radical Design Movement, also known as “Anti-Design”, was originally inspired by a dissatisfaction of Italy’s current modern design of the 1950’s and early 1960’s which emphasized the mass production, functionality, and sale of products rather than the creativity, design, and uniqueness. The movement encouraged architects to no longer work as architects, but to develop designs as artists. The Radical Design Movement has inspired designers to think outside the box and create spaces that encourage the use of bright colors, variety of materials, and distinctive furniture pieces. The Radical Design Movement still to this day heavily influences Italy’s architecture and interior design. The goal of the FIDI workshop aimed to create an environment that allowed Interior Design students the opportunity to revisit this important era and learn directly from some of Italy’s most influential radical designers. The workshop was created specifically for FIDI students, giving them the opportunity to combine their own ideas with the revolutionary ideas of the Radical Design Movement. The workshop began with each architect giving an introductory speech detailing their philosophy of the Radical Design Movement and a discussion on how it continues to evolve over the decades. Gianni Pettena commented, “The Radical Design Phenomenon” started because his generation was the first generation to not be conditioned by the world war, they were free to desire anything, and they wanted to add color and decoration to the world. They did not agree with the architecture being taught in schools at that time and they were looking to give architecture their version of the story. Lapo Binazzi stated, “[The Radical Design Movement] was a search to find new behaviors and represent a new side of architecture.”
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The Radical Design Movement often times was demonstrated through photomontages, video projections, sketches, mock buildings and abstract interior design methods rather than modifying a building’s actual structural design. For instance, Carlo Caldini produced a demonstration that displayed various light projections on the Ponte Vecchio to show that change was not always physical and architects could change a building without touching them. Once the presentation concluded, students were broken up into separate groups with each architect and given the opportunity to collaborate and express their ideas of Radical Design. Each group was given a separate design theme that was unique to each architect’s style. A series of sketch assignments were then given to each group which had different themes revolving around the role of architecture in the urban environment. Students were given time to do a series of sketches to initiate their design concepts. However, since the Italian Radical architects worked predominately with photomontage as a medium, the student concepts also were presented in this form. The designs produced will later be composed into a publication showcasing each student group’s design concept. Kirsten Feathers was in Cristiano Toraldo di Francia’s group and commented, “Having always admired the work of Superstudio, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend a lecture by one of their colleagues. When I later found out he was to direct my workshop I was overwhelmed and spent the majority of the afternoon in absolute awe. A fantastic day.” Melissa Michelson also commented, “I feel very fortunate to have been able to hear such extraordinary architects come and speak to us. I know this was a rare opportunity to be able to have all these great men together in one place and I am so glad I was able to take part in it. I truly enjoyed working with Lapo in the workshop. It was great to be able to talk with him one on one to show him our ideas for the project and hear his feedback. The workshop overall was a great experience that I will never forget.”
by Melissa Tauber
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SUPERSTUDIO
CRISTIANO TORALDO DI FRANCIA
Born in Florence in 1941. Founded “Superstudio” in December of 1966 with his colleague Adolfo Natalini and participated in the first exhibition of Superarchitettura, which was published by Domus and Architectural Design and then republished in April 2007 in Milan at Galleria Carla Sozzoni. His research work and re-establishment of the language of architecture have been documented by numerous of international publications and presented in major museums and art exhibitions from the Milan Triennale (1973) at the Venice Biennale (1978-1996), the Museum of Modern Art (1972-2002) at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (1976). In 1969 he won the Trigon that is assigned to Graz and later at an exhibition at the Galerie Nacht St. Stephan. In 1972 Superstudio was invited to the exhibition “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” at the MOMA in New York, where they presented the short film “Supersuperficie.“ In 1980 Superstudio was dissolved but he continued working independently, first based in Florence with Arch. Andrea Noferi and then from 1994 in the Marche region in Filottrano (following the establishment of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Camerino in the home to Ascoli Piceno). He has also designed for Anonima Castelli, Zanotta, Poltronova, Flos, Calzolari, Giovannetti, Breda, palace, Pica, among others.
Founded in Florence in 1966, and composed by Adolfo Natalini (Pistoia, 1941), Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (Firenze, 1941), Roberto Magris (Firenze, 1935), Piero Frassinelli (Firenze, 1939), Alessandro Magris (Firenze, 1941) and, from 1970 to 1972, by Alessandro Poli (Firenze, 1941) Superstudio carried out research on architecture until 1978. Superstudio’s experimental activity began with the exhibition “Superarchitettura” (1966), together with Archizoom, and continued over the years with design, educational footage and utopic projects. In the ‘Monumento Continuo’ (Continual Monument), 1971, in the ‘Dodici Città Ideali’ (Twelve Ideal Cities, 1971) and in the ‘Cinque storie del Superstudio: vita, educazione, cerimonia, amore, morte’ (Five Stories of Superstudio: life, education, ceremony, love, death, 1973), utopia, pessimism and irony are integrated with a research aimed at the demystification of language, and at a theoretical- philosophical re-foundation of architecture. Together with 9999, they run the educational seminar S-Space (1969) at the Space Electronic in Florence. Many of their projects were originally published in the magazine Casabella, and ranged from fiction, to storyboard illustration and photomontage.
THE ASSIGNMENT Cristiano Toraldo di Francia presented to his sketch group a problem completely within the tradition of the “Radicali” of the 1960’s in Florence: the re-conceptualization of the River Arno as a public amenity. Toraldo di Francia initiated the project with a brief history of the River Arno and how until very recently it had been a component of public use, both for commerce and recreation. In the early days of the city the river had been used for transport, for fishing and for the important industry of wool and dye manufacture. Informally it served the population as a place to bathe, to do laundry, for recreational boating. In later days the industrial use of the river waned, but it remained a vital part of recreational life of Florentines. Even as late as the period between the World Wars there were floating restaurants and clubs on barges that plied the river complete with orchestras and dancing. All of that public utility and life has now been banished from the Arno as it has been re-envisioned by the comune solely as a visual adjunct to the tourist experience of Florence. A few desultory boating enterprises ferry tourists up and down beneath the Ponte Vecchio and the Società Canottieri Firenze continues to exercise on the river. Otherwise for the majority of the population the river is a wholly passive backdrop to city life. Torado di Francia’s proposition to the students was to make the river a public amenity once more in any way they chose. He hypothesized that it could be converted to a super highway and from the bridges people could watch expensive and beautiful automobiles passing below or even a Formula 1 race course. Alternatively it could be filled in and turned into a greenbelt for picnics and the bucolic experience. These were just two opposing ideas and he left the exploration of infinite possibilities to the students. 8/9
project name: Untitled student name: Sara Ali
project name: Untitled student name: Maria Gomez
The Arno River is the heart of Florence where life, in any of its interpretation, begins. Glass is the tranquility, absolute integrity. Eyes are the harmony lovers. Sphere is the circulation of power and energy. Theater is the world of aesthetic feeling. The source of dramatic harmony, pure emotions.
project name: SWATH (Sphere-Water-Arno-Theater-Harmony) student name: Dilyara Akhmatova
project name: Arno Garden student name: Natalie Goldfinger
A path through the river, with stations for play, listen music, watch theatre, swim.. in one word LIVE. The path is made of wood, like an old bridge. Walking in the water, living in the water.
project name: Elective City student name: Kirsten Feathers
project name: “Live� student name: Viviana Morales Rodas
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project name: Please Walk on The Grass student name: Alison McQuaid
project name: Untitled student name: PIerre Chambrade
The design concept is to balance the harmony between human and nature, to share the land and the food, the color of Florence city center represents the the mood and united of the Italia nation.
project name: Balance and Harmony student name: Obella Kong
Make a new friend; ARNO. Love him and take care of him. Appreciate it’s resources and be one in unity with the nature.
project name: Unity with Nature student name: Oksana Davydenko
project name: Arno Park student name: Yoshua Gitlin
project name: Untitled student name: Melissa Tauber 12/13
UFO
LAPO BINAZZI
Born in Florence in 1943, completed his architectural degree in 1971. In 1967, with Foresi, Maschietto, Bachi and Cammeo, he founded UFO, a group which found its place in the experimental climate of Radical architecture. Together, they participated in numerous international exhibitions, such as the XIV Milan Triennale (1968), the Paris Biennale (1971) Contemporanea in Rome (1974), the Venice Biennale(1978). In 1973, together with UFO, Binazzi was one of the founders of Global Tools, a workshop for experimental architecture. After the UFO experience, Binazzi continued his activity as an architect-artist-designer, taking part in many exhibitions, such as Alchimia in Florence (1981), Documenta 8 in Kassel (1987), and Il Dolce Stil Novo della Casa in Florence (1991). His research considers design as a pure communication phenomenon, and is based on the attempt to make art coincide with design experimentation.
The UFO group was founded in 1967 on the wave of the student protest within the faculty of Architecture, at the University of Florence, by Lapo Binazzi (Firenze, 1943), Riccardo Foresi (Firenze, 1941), Titti Maschietto (Viareggio, 1942), Carlo Bachi (Pisa, 1939) e Patrizia Cammeo (Firenze, 1943). Their intention was to operate a transformation of architecture into a show, an event, an action of urban and environmental battle. Thus were born the “Urboeffimeri” (1968) for the International Section at the Triennale, the “Case Anas” (1970), the “Giro d’Italia” (1972). Alongside with this theoretical and demonstrational activity, UFO also designed the interiors of restaurants and discotheques (Sherwood restaurant in Florence, Bamba Issa discotheque in Forte dei Marmi, 1969), in which stage-setting, ephemeral sets and furniture end up being identified through the use of materials like papier-mâché, polyurethane, inflatable. In 1973, they joined Global Tools, where they continue their avant-garde research, accompanying their planning nihilism and their research on language with ideological commitment, and a special attention towards social and political behaviors.
THE ASSIGNMENT The proposed theme consists in developing an element of interior furniture to be freely located in a residential open-space of 5 x 10 m in plan, by 4 m high. The object must be thought as a collective space, not individual. It must be flexible, modular and articulated, so that it can be configured and used in various manners, to create an innovative and different way of “relaxing”, alternative and far from the typical “Bourgeoisie” living room, arranged by individual armchairs and sofas. The object must be designed to be able to host a variable number of persons, from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of approximately 20. Following the inspirations of the Seminar, students should refer to: - “Gazebi” by Archizoom (see Pianeta Fresco magazine), 1968 - “Superonda” and “Safari” couches by Archizoom, manufactured by Poltronova, 1967 - “Bazaar” sofa by Superstudio, manufactured by Giovannetti, 1968 - “Tempio Dorico”, “Letto-Formaggio” and “Fungo” by UFO, self manufactured, 1968-1971 - The Piazza-Bed (Letto-Piazza) and the Cupboard-Bed (Armadio-letto) by Gianni Pettena, self manufactured 1970s These objects revolutionized the system of youth behavior within the home. They express the time in which they were built as proposals of ‘extreme designs’. They underline the desire to be together and not alone, surrounded by an imagination that actually came to power in those unforgettable years and represent one of the most beautiful spiritual legacies that we left to today’s youth. 14/15
The assignment was to create a piece of furniture that changes behavior. I decided to deal with one of the most intimate places of human activities- the bed. The concept was to break the fear of doing these activities in public, provide some adrenaline and at the same time security. While being inside one feels exposed to the public but in the reality he/she is isolated from the outside, both physically and visually. The illusion is achieved with the use of one- way glass, which will be transparent from inside and opaque from the outside of the egg. Thus the space inside the egg is balanced between being inside or outside , open or closed.
project name: EGGuilibrium student name: Shushanik Kostandyan
project name: Living Room Furniture [inspired from the concept of the boat] student name: Mariam Sahakyan
project name: EGGuilibrium student name: Shushanik Kostandyan
project name: Radical Furniture student name: Shimaa Nasr Shalash
The concept is about cutting a Martini glass into pieces and use those pieces to create furniture. The cup part can be used as a sofa or a bookshelf. The middle part of the Martini glass could be used as a bench. The bottom part could be used as a table. The Olive we can use like chair.
project name: Martini Glass Concept student name: David Evaldi
It started from a simple box, then it developed through the desire to make something colorful, fun and multifunctional. It can be your only piece of furniture in the room and used by many people. Children could find it very fun and can safely play around. They can develop their skills trying to collect the pieces together and learn about primary colors and materials.
project name: Radical Furniture student name: Shimaa Nasr Shalash
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project name: Happy Space student name: Silvia Punzo MartĂnez
project name: Happy Space student name: Silvia Punzo MartĂnez
project name: Like Bees in the Park student name: Leandro Amadi
project name: The Clock student name: Lama Alawa
project name:Untitled student name: Andrea Montalvo Birlain
project name: Untitled student name: Christina Symes
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9999 GROUP
CARLO CALDINI
Florence based architect who has been combining professional practice, teaching, an intense academic research worldwide and trade union assignments. In 1964 together with Mario Preti and Walter Natali he travelled extensively throughout Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria on a VW van in order to study Chandigarh and Eastern cities. In 1967, together with Giorgio Birelli, Fabrizio Fiumi and Paolo Galli, he founded the research group “9999” which devoted to architectural experimentation and sustainability within the Italian Radical scene. In 1972, 9999 won MoMA (Italy: The New Domestic Landscape ) Competition for Young Designers with their project Vegetable Garden House which developed out of the experiments in Florence, inside the progressive discothèque the group founded and designed in 1969, “Space Electronic”.
Members: Giorgio Birelli, Carlo Caldini, Fabrizio Fiumi and Paolo Galli. Motto: RELAX. Immense energetic cycles support our life with an extremely thin layer of Earth. In the second half of the 1960’s, The Florence University School of Architecture was characterized by a very lively and creative atmosphere. This was largely due to a solid team of very active teachers and groups of students who, through their studies and research, created a conversation with everything new that was happening in every other part of the world. With this backdrop, 9999 was born as a study and work group that produced its first experiences, between 1966 and 1968, at The Florence University School of Architecture. It moved within the radical climate without renouncing to architectural design which was carried out through photo montages, graphics, videos, films and happenings. One of their most successful projects happened from 11pm to midnight on September 25, 1968, when they projected images onto the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The management of Space Electronic represented an ‘opportunità’ to host experimental manifestations of various types. In 1972 they were present at the show: “Italy: the new domestic landscape” and from 1973 they were part of Global Tools in which they proposed life experience and the direct experimentation of building techniques as a moment of collective self- learning.
THE ASSIGNMENT The sketch assignments challenged the students to examine the ways in which we use energy as part of our daily lives. Carlo Caldini was the group leader who utilized his historical works of the group 9999 as examples of how this could be approached. Their solutions encompassed sustainable methodologies developed in the 1960’s of how the roles of nature can make solutions to our daily life styles. The problem asks that students first define their own project by finding an issue or routine that consumes energy. The design problem can be of a commercial or residential nature and be at the individual or even urban level. The design solution is to the propose how either technology or process can conserve energy or natural resources such as water. The historical works of 9999 made often reference to San Francesco who is the saint of all natural things; earth, wind fire, water. During the workshop there was a reading of the Canticle of ‘All Creative Things’ as a way to initiate the design process. Following the inspirations of the Seminar, students should refer to: - “The vegetable garden house” by Italian collective call “9999”, 1970 - “Projections on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence” by group “9999”, 1968 - “Space electronic club” by group “9999”, 1969 - “Venice proposal” by group “9999”, 1971- 1972 - “Photo montage /meeting between Richard M. Nixon and Liu Shaoqi” by group “9999”, 1968 20/21
The idea is based on the equilibrium between nature and the progress of science. Taking advantage of both, I propose a solar panel structure to cover the city providing enough natural energy and at the same time divide the world into two different areas: the dirty and the clean one. Keeping the contaminated part in a bubble, we can still give the opportunity of enjoy nature and let it develop as it has since the beginning of time. You choose how you would like to live.
project name: Land- [E] SCAPE student name: Paula Trincado
A green area upon the concrete walkway on the western side of Arno that would work not only as a green area for the citizens of Florence to enjoy but could also act as a water filter composed by sand.
project name: Green Area in the Arno student name: Joana Pacheco
project name: Multi- functional Portable Garden student name: Gabriela Montero
project name: Using Nature student name: Nesma Hany El Gamma
The population of our planet is growing fast and the lack of space in the cities is a problem. In the future we are forced to build smarter and respect our surroundings. But what if we stopped building new homes and instead created them from existing objects? To build and live in harmony with our planet means that we have to compromise sometimes. We throw away so much material all the time and many objects that can be reused and transformed into something else. The airplane - home is an example of how we could reuse commercial objects and how it would look when placed in the raw nature.
project name: Reuse of Space and Objects student name: Jakob Kvart
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project name: The Ecological Energy Self- Producing HOME student name: Gabriel Juarez Garcia
project name: Harmony Fight student name: Debora Mansur Avelar
project name: The Self Sufficient House of the Future student name: Adesina Aanuoluwapo
project name: Based on Nature student name: Nada Wahby
project name: Nature Comes to the City student name: Karla Lopez
project name: Chianti Swimming Pool student name: Ying Ling
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GIANNI PETTENA
Born in 1940, he studied architecture at the University of Florence. In the ‘60s, with other students such as Paolo Deganello, Andrea Branzi, Massimo Morozzi and Adolfo Natalini, he helped to create the climate that produced the “Radical” movement, which was the origin of much contemporary experimentation in the field of Italian architecture and design. He started on the route of “alternative design“, even before his degree (1968) and began an experimental activity that is rooted in personal experience, often without regard to the necessities of professional practice. In 1971 he was invited to the United States as an artist-in residence at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis and the following year at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He begins his education and critical roles this way and apart from building a constant and reciprocally gratifying dialogue with various generations of students (of whom we remember Nigel Coates and Peter Wilson at the A.A. in London, Marco Zanini and Michele De Lucchi at the University of Florence, Tim Power, Mike Ryan and Johanna Grawunder at California State University), Pettena held conferences and seminars in numerous schools of architecture in the USA, UK, and in Europe and especially Italy in the course of the following years. After his return to Italy, at the invitation of Eugenio Battisti and Giovanni Klaus Koenig to hold courses at the Department of Architecture in Florence, he dedicated himself to an intense activity as a critic, as well as educational activity in which he tried to make known those contemporary experiences that introduced a different approach to the environmental context (from funk architecture to Buckminster Fuller, to the counterculture of the North American beat generation). In 1973 he was among the founders of Global Tools, a school and laboratory system that represented the moment of maximum communal intensity for the movement of ‘Architettura Radicale’.
In 1983 he published the final version of La città invisibile (the first version in 1976) in which the experiments of the ‘radicals’ between 1965 and 1975 are presented in an anthological-critical form for the first time. Pettena re-proposes the themes of the ‘radicals’ at the 1996 Venice Architecture Biennal (exhibition and book Radicals) as a historical introduction to the modern figure of the architect as a ‘seismograph’ suggested by Hans Hollein, as well as in the following exhibition Archipelago (1999) in which this interpretation of ‘radicality’ expands to the contemporary, and integrates architectural drawings with art installations and pieces of design with visions of environments by both masters and the young students taking part in the exhibition. In 2008 interrupted his teaching of the History of Contemporary Architecture at the University of Florence ahead of time, partly as a mark of his disapproval of the way the Italian system of universities is currently run, but continued with his courses of Architectural Design at California State University.
THE ASSIGNMENT
The proposed assigned was to replace or be placed in an existent Renaissance building, monument or piazza a contemporary design or architectural work. “Alternative design” Should reflect radicalism, something that catches the attention of the Florentine people. Creativity, liberation of the imagination, playing with space, contemporary experimentation. Following the inspirations of the Seminar, students should refer to : - “Eiffel Tower” by Stephen Sauvestre,1889 - “London Eye” by Frank Anatole, Nic Bailey, Steve Chilton, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrow hawk,1996. - “Millennium Bridge” by Norman Foster, 1998- 2000 - “New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York” by Sanaa, 1977 - “New York’s High Line Park” by James Corner , 2009 - “National Stadium, Bird’s Nest” by Herzog & de Meuron Basel, March 2003, - “The Gherkin” by Norman Foster, Ken Shuttleworth, Start2001 Completed 2003, - “Hamilton by Denver Art Museum” by Frederic C 1998 -2009 - opened 2010 - “MAXXI Museum” by Zaha Hadid architect, 13 November 2009 - “Arnolfo dialogue/ Language of the renaissance” by Gianni pettena, 1968 This architecture and design, express the “Alternative design“. Imagination, creation, development of new ideas that came together with a new lifestyle of the people.
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I propose to relate two monuments of different times known for their scale and architectural challenges by bringing in a new building from a new city and placing it on top of a historical building in an old city. Thus we can see the evolution of building over times within the diminishing landscape.
project name: Monumental Monuments student name: Fatima Qabazard
project name: Crystal Garden student name: Sara Arias
project name: The Time Reflection student name: Anh Nong
My idea is to interact an existing contemporary building component, the dome of Berlin’s Parliament, with Florence’s Duomo replacing Brunelleschi’s Dome with a contemporary one .
project name: Interaction student name: Ila Gaudencio
project name: Crystal Garden student name: Sara Arias
project name: Untitled student name: Lou Bunkheila 28/29
The idea is to construct a Glass Bridge across the Arno. The bridge’s glass skin is embossed in order to reflect the sun’s rays and give a spectrum reflection effect inside the bridge. The floor material is transparent so that the lower part of the bridge gives a refraction effect. The aim is that the passengers still enjoy the beautiful view of Florence while crossing the bridge having the colorful reflected light inside and have the insight of walking inside a shell across the river .
project name: Ponte della Conchiglia student name: Eman Ashmawi
project name: Precious Exchange student name: Sophia Avat
project name: Ponte Eternita student name: Kylie Tso
project name: Ponte Verde student name: Gaetano Vinciguerra
project name: Ponte la Vittoria/ modern view student name: Yomna Hany
project name: Green Bridge student name: Sandie Tsai 30/31
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Workshop Projects Florence Institute of Design International Students Text Melissa Tauber Photos and Graphic Design Tonka Raycheva