UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The State of Architecture Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s86b2s6 Author Fabbrini, Sebastiano Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The State of Architecture A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture by Sebastiano Fabbrini 2018 © Copyright by Sebastiano Fabbrini 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The State of Architecture by Sebastiano Fabbrini Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Sylvia Lavin, Chair Although architecture was historically considered the most public of the arts and the interdependence between building and the public realm was a key feature of the post-war discourse, the process of postmodernization undermined the traditional structures of power through which architecture operated. At the center of this shakeup was the modern structure par excellence : the State. This dissertation analyzes the dissolution of the bond between architecture and the State through a double lens. First, this study is framed by the workings of an architect, Aldo Rossi, whose practice mirrored this transformation in a unique way, going from Mussolini’s Italy to Reagan’s America, from the Communist Party to Disneyland. The second lens is provided by a set of technological apparatuses ii that, in this pre-digital world, impacted the reach of the State and the boundaries of architecture. Drawing on the multifaceted root of the term “State,” this dissertation sets out to explore a series of case studies that addressed the need to re-state architecture – both in the sense of relocating architecture within new landscapes of power and in the sense of finding ways to keep reproducing it in those uncharted territories. iii The dissertation of Sebastiano Fabbrini is approved. Michael Osman Dana Cuff Maristella Casciato Sylvia Lavin, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements vi Vita viii Introduction 1 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chapter 1: Faded Fax 5 References 33 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chapter 2: Black Card 59 References 82 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chapter 3: Blue Book 107 References 143 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chapter 4: Silver Mold 183 References 224 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chapter 5: Black Cape 248 References 267 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… v Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of an extensive process and I have to thank a multitude of individuals and institutions that helped me along the way. First, I would like to thank Sylvia Lavin. Not only did she play a fundamental role in the development of this research project, but she also guided and supported me throughout the entirety of my doctoral studies at the University of California Los Angeles. Working with Sylvia was a life-changing experience: her teachings had a transformative effect on the way I look at things, the way I think, the way I write. The Department of Architecture and Urban Design of the University of California Los Angeles provided a vibrant and inspiring milieu for this research. In this framework, Dana Cuff and Michael Osman had a particularly important influence on my work. I am deeply grateful to Dana and Michael for serving in my doctoral committee and for giving me precious advice since my first week in the doctoral program. This dissertation would not have been possible without their guidance and generosity. In that vein, I would also like to acknowledge all the faculty and staff of the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, my fellow doctoral students, and the numerous individuals I had the opportunity to meet at the University of California Los Angeles: I learned so much from so many people. I am particularly grateful to Diane Favro, who advised me and gave me unexpected opportunities at the very beginning of my doctoral journey. This research was also fueled by multiple interactions and collaborations outside the University of California Los Angeles. In the network of people and ideas that took shape around this dissertation, vi no one had a greater impact than Maristella Casciato, who was kind enough to serve as the external member of my doctoral committee. She arrived at the Getty Research Institute precisely as I was laying the foundations of my research prospectus and, from our first meeting onward, she played a crucial role in shaping this dissertation and my work at large. I do not know how to say thank you enough to Maristella for her eye-opening advice and unwavering encouragement. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank some of the professors who guided or inspired me in previous phases of my education and, in many cases, continued to follow my work over the years: I am particularly grateful to Marco Mulazzani and Nicola Marzot at the University of Ferrara, Andrew Shanken at the University of California Berkeley, and Tom Avermaet at the University of Delft. As this dissertation is heavily based on archival materials, this project would not have been possible without the assistance and kindness of the staff at the archives of the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles), the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal), the Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (Rome) and the Fondazione Aldo Rossi (Milan). I also presented sections of this dissertation at various academic conferences, such as The Tools of the Architect (University of Delft) and Aldo Rossi: Perspectives from the World (University of Milan): I am grateful to all the individuals who engaged with my work and gave me valuable feedback during those events. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my family. My mother Manuela, my father Sergio and my brother Federico helped me and supported me in more ways that can be expressed. Thank you. vii Vita Prior to enrolling at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Fall of 2013, Sebastiano Fabbrini obtained a Magisterial Degree in Architecture from the University of Ferrara. During that time, he was also a visiting student at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Delft. While being a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Sebastiano Fabbrini had the opportunity to work as a Teaching Fellow and received multiple awards for his research, including a Dissertation Year Fellowship, the Edgardo Contini Fellowship and the Anne Greenwald Prize. His work was published in several journals, such as Thresholds and Pidgin , and presented at numerous international conferences, such as the 2017 conference of the European Architectural History Network. He is also a licensed architect and worked in the office of Adamstein & Demetriou in 2010. viii Introduction Each chapter of this study revolves around a general problematic associated with the process of re- stating and focuses on specific dynamics set in motion to address it. The problematics are independent of Aldo Rossi, while the dynamics are unique to Aldo Rossi. The focus is on the final part of Aldo Rossi’s career, which was largely spent in the United States – the part which is usually overlooked by historians. A series of technologies of reproduction and dissemination, organized as streams , provide the framework of the dissertation: the fax machine, the credit card, the mold and the notebook. In the chapter “Faded Fax,” the overarching problematic is the globalization of practice – understood not only in terms of working in different countries, but rather in terms of producing architecture within a multinational framework. Before the digital revolution, for roughly twenty years, the fax machine was the technology that made this interaction possible. In addition to creating a new spatio- temporal condition for practice, faxing, by its very nature, represented a fundamental challenge to all pre-existing boundaries and borders. The two decades that saw the rise and fall of the fax machine coincided with the internationalization of Aldo Rossi’s organization, which was propelled by the establishment of a satellite office in New York, in 1986. As most projects were elaborated by sending ephemeral (fading) documents back and forth via fax from diverse locations, this chapter examines how this technology influenced Aldo Rossi’s design process and intersected with some of his key theoretical statements – especially the concept of analogy . Building on this analysis, the chapter “Black Card” shifts the attention to how the governing bodies of the profession negotiated the gradual dissolution of national authorities and the emergence of multi- 1 layered markets for architecture. The key device is a black credit card that the American Institute of Architects gave to Aldo Rossi in the late 1980s, officializing his transition from traveling to working in the United States. While all the members of the AIA were given this piece of plastic, Aldo Rossi’s card is significant because, on the one hand, it reflects an effort to blur the national limits of the profession and, on the other hand, it interacts with a series of other cards—such as the tessera of the Communist Party—that the architect had accumulate over time in order to be able to work in different and partly overlapping arenas. The credit card format also shines a light on the power

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