DOCSLIB.ORG

Carlo Aymonino, One of the Most Important Architects of the Second

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Carlo Aymonino, One of the Most Important Architects of the Second In memory of Carlo Aymonino | Manuel de Solà-Morales www.dur.upc.edu 02-2011 Carlo Aymonino, one of the most important architects of the second and in Compte’s philosophical neopositivism—but unless we harken In memory of Carlo Aymonino half of the twentieth century, died in Rome, the city of his birth, on back to Durand or Semper and all that was swept away by the winds of July 3, 2010 at the age of 83. In his writings, seminars, and designs he functionalism, there has been no parallel to Aymonino in contemporary tackled the fundamental problems raised by the shift from the Modern European architectural thought. Movement to the engagement with complexity and the beauty of the His proposal that we recognize the study of the city as a discipline basic real-life, historical, and contemporary city. to all architecture has been simplistically labeled the “typological” At a moment marked by disciplinary fundamentalism and ill approach, and while that may not be a mislabeling, it is notably temperedness, Aymonino advanced, through early writings such as reductive. Drawing similar conclusions as the folks who based the Origini e sviluppo della città moderna (1965), Il significato della città idea of architecture on the progressive rationalization of the hut (1975), and Le città capitali (1975), a vision of city architecture that and identified the origin of composite geometry within the logic of brimmed with tenderness and curiosity. construction, Aymonino is among those who proclaim the city—which is to say agglomeration, hierarchy, and, more generally, the relationship He always approached the city more as an apprentice than a prophet, | Manuel de Solà-Morales and was constantly interweaving the abstract values of urban life with between multifarious forms—as the principle that underlies all an appreciation for the uniquely textured event. architectural intelligence. Aymonino’s reading of the city as an all-encompassing matrix of To him, a building only made sense as a piece of the larger urban architectural cultures was not without scholastic precedent—it could puzzle, and as such, as the locus of some function in relation to its be found in Muratori’s typological analyses of Venice, for instance, context. And it was, moreover, the city plan, in all the richness of its 158 En la muerte de Carlo Aymonino | Manuel de Solà-Morales | Manuel de Solà-Morales Font: http://www.iuav.it El 3 de julio de este año moría en Roma Carlo Aymonino (Roma, 1926), uno de los arquitectos más significativos de la segunda mitad En la muerte de Carlo Aymonino del siglo XX. Su vida ha afrontado con textos, seminarios y proyectos los problemas fundamentales del paso del Movimiento Moderno al compromiso con la complejidad y la belleza de la ciudad real, histórica y contemporánea. En sus textos fundacionales Origini e sviluppo della città moderna (1965), Il significato della città (1975) y Le città capitali (1975), Aymonino propone, en un momento caracterizado por el fundamentalismo y el mal humor disciplinares de los 70’, una idea de ciudad-arquitectura llena de afecto y curiosidad. Su aproximación a la ciudad es siempre la de un aprendiz más que la de un profeta, cruzando continuamente la abstracción de las relaciones urbanas generales con la estima del episodio de la singularidad 02-2011 cualitativa. www.dur.upc.edu Su lectura de la ciudad como matriz de toda cultura arquitectónica tiene precedentes escolásticos sí, en los análisis tipológicos de Muratori 159 www.dur.upc.edu 02-2011 forms—be they cadastres, roads, streetlights or signs, overlapping or Taken as a body of work, Aymonino’s theoretical contributions are repeating—that contained within it the qualities peculiar to the urban transcendent not merely due to his architectural designs or the power In memory of Carlo Aymonino phenomenon. of his writings, but for his singular intellectual stance. He defended For two decades Aymonino ran the Italian university’s “Gruppo project-based urbanism (masked by its partisan commitments) from Architetture,” and it was with this collection of friends and followers— the urbanism of the planners, of the municipal expediters and architects Rossi, Canella, Grassi, Semerani, Polosello—that he undertook of objects. By introducing this defense (like Quaroni or Samonà) into prototypical studies of cities (first Padua, later Paris, Vienna…) Italy’s debate (arguably the richest of the 70s, 80s, and 90s) he broke and called into service a demonstration of the city’s meaning as an the tension between ideological architects and pragmatic politicians outgrowth of its architecture. and stood up to Anglo Saxon structuralism-in-disguise (Ceccarelli, Secchi). In 1969 the Barcelona Urbanism Laboratory undertook the first, admittedly modest translations and publication of the texts most But Aymonino’s historical significance must ultimately be understood emblematic of the theoretical debate that Aymonino inaugurated. as stemming from his role as a father figure and mentor to Aldo Rossi. His generosity and admiration for Rossi made it possible for his Printed in the department’s primitive booklets (3.2), The Meaning of | Manuel de Solà-Morales Cities was the first. Then, in 1972 Gustavo Gilli published the Spanish dazzling Milanese friend to largely overshadow him. For Aymonino, translation of his 1965 The Origins and Development of the Modern standing up for Rossi’s ideas was a lifelong commitment, and their City as a real book, one of a series (Ciencia Urbanística, 11). A collaboration was a source of so many of the shades of meaning and subsequent version of The Meaning of Cities was published in Madrid subtle differences that made that era among Italy’s—and the world’s— in 1981 by Blume. most prolific in terms of new architectural ideas. 160 | Manuel de Solà-Morales para Venecia y en el neopositivismo filosófico de Compte, pero no Durante veinte años dirigió en la universidad italiana, el “Gruppo tiene paralelismos en el pensamiento arquitectónico europeo, si no nos Architettura”, y es con el grupo de sus discípulos amigos -Rossi, remontamos a Durand o Semper y todo lo arrastrado por el vendaval Canella, Grassi, Semerani, Polosello- con quienes a través de estudios En la muerte de Carlo Aymonino funcionalista. prototípicos sobre ciudades (primero fue Padova, después París, Su propuesta de reconocer el estudio de la ciudad como la disciplina Viena...) desplegaron la demostración del significado urbano construido básica de la arquitectura, ha sido simplistamente etiquetada como desde la arquitectura. método “morfo-tipológico”. No se trata de una etiqueta falsa, pero El Laboratorio de Urbanismo de Barcelona inició, en el año 1969 sí muy reductiva. Llegando a conclusiones similares a las de quienes las primeras traducciones y publicaciones, aun muy modestas, de los fundamentan la idea de arquitectura a la racionalización progresiva de textos emblemáticos del debate teórico suscitado por Aymonino. El la cabaña y la de lógica de la construcción como origen de la geometría significado de las ciudades fue el primero, en los primitivos cuadernos compositiva, Aymonino es de los que proclaman la ciudad -es decir del Departamento (3.2). Poco después, ya como libro formal de Gustavo la agrupación, la jerarquía y en general las relaciones entre formas Gili, se editó Orígenes y desarrollo de la ciudad moderna (1972) en la múltiples- como el principio original de la inteligencia arquitectónica. colección morada (Ciencia Urbanística, 11). Después ha habido una Para él, el edificio solo tiene sentido como pieza urbana, y por tanto, versión de El significado de las ciudades, editada por Blume en Madrid también como sede de alguna función relacional. Y es sobre todo la en 1981. planta urbana, con la riqueza de sus formas catastrales, viarias, focales En conjunto, la contribución teórica de Aymonino es tan trascendente 02-2011 www.dur.upc.edu o textuales, superpuestas o repetitivas, la que contiene los aspectos más no solo por su labor como arquitecto y por la fuerza de sus textos, propios del fenómeno urbano. sino sobre todo por la singularidad de su posición intelectual. Defensor 161 www.dur.upc.edu 02-2011 After finishing at Rome’s Sapienza University, Aymonino went to of the liberal left/Christian Democrats (Benèvolo, Salzano). During work in the studio of his uncle, the powerful Marcello Piacentini, the 1970s he was renowned for his controversial positions, and for and soon found himself working with Quaroni and Ridolfi on the bringing debates over urbanism, planning, and the socialist city into design for the Campus Martius district, which they proceeded to the Italian Communist Party congresses, along with other hot topics of build between 1949 and 1954 and made into the ultimate expression the moment like the unceasing flow of capitalist development and the of architectural “neorealism.” At the end of the 1950s, together with countervailing Soviet and Chinese models. his brother Maurizio, Alessandro de Rossi, and the Baldo brothers, Aymonino was reliably unmerciful on such topics. Against the grain of Aymonino started the AIDE studio. Beginning in 1974 came the virtually all his contemporaries, he maintained that the city could never famous Gallaratese project in a mixed-use neighborhood of Milan, the escape its history and that new modes of production would necessarily master plan for Pesaro’s historic downtown, and, from 1978 to ’81, bring about changes in the relationships between the city’s distinctive In memory of Carlo Aymonino the provocative Casa-Parcheggio in that same city. More recently his components, which, though still comprised of public facilities and monument to the Colossus of Rome in the Forum constituted what may housing, would be re-combined in novel ways. have been his final project. As editor of Casabella and Il Contemporaneo, Aymonino became Translation: Philip Kay Among his multiplicity of designs, texts, lectures, and seminars known for his ideological diatribes and his endless dinner conversations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mauro Marzo Lotus. the First Thirty Years of an Architectural Magazine
    DOI: 10.1283/fam/issn2039-0491/n43-2018/142 Mauro Marzo Lotus. The first thirty years of an architectural magazine Abstract Imagined more as an annual dedicated to the best works of architectu- re, urban and industrial design, during the first seven issues, the maga- zine «Lotus» shifts the axis of its purpose from that of information and professional updating to one of a critical examination of the key issues intrinsic to the architectural project. This article identifies some themes, which pervaded the first thirty years of «Lotus» life, from 1964 to 1994, re- emerging, with variations, in many successive issues. If the monographic approach set a characteristic of the editorial line that endures over time, helping to strengthen the magazine’s identity, the change in the themes dealt with over the course of the decades is considered as a litmus test of the continuous evolution of the theoretical-design issues at the core of the architectural debate. Keywords Lotus International — Architectural annual — Little Magazine — Pier- luigi Nicolin — Bruno Alfieri The year 1963 was a memorable one for the British racing driver Jim Clark. At the helm of his Lotus 25 custom-made for him by Colin Chapman, he had won seven of the ten races scheduled for that year. The fastest lap at the Italian Grand Prix held at Monza on 8 September 1963 had allowed him and his team to win the drivers’ title and the Constructors’ Cup,1 with three races to go before the end of the championship. That same day, Chap- man did “the lap of honour astride the hood of his Lotus 25”.2 This car, and its success story, inspired the name chosen for what was initially imagined more as an annual dedicated to the best works of archi- tecture, urban and industrial design, rather than a traditional magazine.
    [Show full text]
  • 1968, Tendenza and Education in Aldo Rossi
    1 Histories of PostWar Architecture 2 | 2018 | 1 Monument in Revolution: 1968, Tendenza and Education in Aldo Rossi Kenta Matsui PhD Candidate, The University of Tokyo (Japan), Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering [email protected] MA Degree in History of Architecture at the Graduate school of the University of Tokyo. Research Fellowship for Young Scientists supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2016-2018). His research focuses on the architectural theories of Aldo Rossi and other contemporary Italian architects in relation to the contexts of postwar Italy. ABSTRACT In the 1960’s, as Italian architectural schools faced student protests and forceful occupation attempts, Aldo Rossi tried to reform the schools through the idea of ‘tendency school’ shared with Carlo Aymonino, and to reconstruct architecture as discipline and theory. His theory has two aspects: urban analysis and architectural project. The former presents a dynamic conception of the temporal evolution of the city, as if echoing the restless social situation of the time; the latter centers on the logicality of architecture represented by monuments. This study explores the meaning of this dualism between urban analysis and architectural project as an intent for revolution, and in light of this, investigates the idea of ‘monument in revolution’. This study was supported by a research fund from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number JP16J05298). I would like to thank Bébio Amaro (Assistant Professor at Tianjin University, School of Architecture) for his aid in checking and revising the English text. Additionally, I would like to kindly acknowledge the many helpful suggestions and remarks provided by the anonymous reviewers, which have greatly contributed towards improving the overall quality and readability of this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Italian Experimentalism and the Contemporary City
    Discorsi per Immagini: Of Political and Architectural Experimentation Amit Wolf Queste proposte di lavoro comprendono anche una possibilità di impiego culturale degli architetti al di fuori della professione integrata nel capitale. Attraverso la partecipazione al movimento di classe questi trovano il loro campo di ricerca: l’architettura dal punto di vista operaio, la progettazione delle nuove Karl-Marx-Hof in cui la struttura dell’abitazione collettiva è lo strumento di battaglia. Claudio Greppi and Alberto Pedrolli, “Produzione e programmazione territoriale”1 Of primary interest to us, however, is the question of why, until now, Marxist oriented culture has…denied or concealed the simple truth that, just as there can be no such thing as a political economics of class, but only a class critique of political economics, likewise there can never be an aesthetics, art or architecture of class, but only a class critique of aesthetic, art, architecture and the city. Manfredo Tafuri, “Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology”2 No account of recent trends in American architecture should fail to mention Manfredo Tafuri’s “Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology.” This text played a vital role in the distancing of ideas from things in the intellectual conceptualization of the profession; indeed, it set the ground for what is now referred to as “criticality.” The above quotation closes the Roman critic’s essay for the New Left’s first issue of Contropiano. Its final adage follows Tafuri’s dismissal of the possibility of an architectural experimentation that might nudge and expand the field’s stale professionalism in the years around 1968.
    [Show full text]
  • Azu Etd Mr 2015 0128 Sip1 M.Pdf
    The Nostalgic Subject and the Reactionary Figure: Italian Architecture in 1972 Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Hayt, Andrew Carlton Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 01/10/2021 08:52:49 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/579263 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS This thesis considers the works of two divergent architectural movements in Italy in 1972, the Neo-Rationalist Tendenza and the revolutionary Architettura Radicale, and examines their treatment of the human figure as a means of understanding the strikingly different built environments that were created during the period. The rapidly shifting political, cultural, and socio-psychological milieu in Italy during the years following World War II transformed the meaning of the family unit and the significance of the individual and deeply affected the manner in which architects sought to address the needs of those who inhabited their structures. In Florence the group Superstudio envisioned radical environments that eschewed dominant architectural methodologies in favor of a reductive form of architecture that sought to push capitalistic trends toward their logical and inevitable conclusion. In Milan the architects Aldo Rossi and Carlo Aymonino were constructing the Monte Amiata housing project in the Gallaratese quarter, a series of structures rooted in the architectonic principles of the past, within which the role of the human figure is a more nebulous concept.
    [Show full text]
  • (1963-74). Three Basque Exercises on Linear Residential Blocks
    ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 Unités & Hybrids (1963-74). Three Basque exercises on linear residential blocks Lauren Etxepare Igiñiz 1 | Eneko Jokin Uranga Santamaria 2 | Iñigo Lizundia Uranga 3 | Maialen Sagarna Aranburu 4 Received: 2020-04-11 | In its last version: 2020-07-13 Abstract The final result of an architectural experiment, especially in terms of public collective housing, not only responds to the will and creativity of the architects, and to the adoption of canonic models, but it also depends on the specific circumstances of the place where the housing was built. This work examines three residential blocks, built along the Basque coast, which reflect the influence of the main discourses related to linear residential blocks that prevailed in Western Europe in the 60s of the twentieth century. The three cases show the way in which architects, agents and local administrations tried to apply the architectural type in a certain place, and under specific economic and sociopolitical conditions. The article provides an innovative vision, as the authors decided to adopt a geographical framework that transcends the political framework of the time, considering the entire Basque area, where the different architectural discourses were deposited. The original projects of the three case studies have been consulted, as well as general and specific literature relating to each case. Further, a series of interviews were held with the architects responsible for two of the cases. From studying all the publicity around linear blocks carried out between the early 60s and the oil crisis (1974), the authors have obtained the sequence of influences under which these projects were developed.
    [Show full text]
  • Aldo Rossi – Architect and Theorist. the Dilemmas of Architecture After Modernism 1
    ALDO ROSSI – ARCHITECT AND THEORIST. THE DILEMMAS OF ARCHITECTURE AFTER MODERNISM 1 JUSTYNA WOJTAS SWOSZOWSKA From a 21st century perspective the characteristic foremost his theory of Neo-Rational architecture, work of Aldo Rossi (1931-1997) 2, the Italian architect, explained in masterly fashion in numerous essays theorist, artist, and designer, may look anachronistic. and treatises. To present an honest evaluation of Aldo Today, he is considered a representative of Rossi’s work against the background of changes postmodernism, though he referred to himself as in architecture in the second half of the twentieth a premodernist 3. In his designs he applied historical century, we must look at his work in its entirety. canons, taking them without “a pinch of salt”, as did many postmodernists who followed Robert Venturi. The Mediterranean origin of historical tendencies His inspirations were derived from the world around in architecture him, since he considered observation to be the best school of architecture. He used the basic Platonic Aldo Rossi’s career in architecture began in the solids, from which, as if from building blocks, he 1960s, when the rapid economic growth of developed created monumental architecture, concise in form countries made clear the ineffectuality of the doctrines or almost fairy-tale like (ill. 1, 2). Karen Stein 4, of mature modernism. In philosophy, politics, an American architecture critic, sees a similarity culture, art, a period of postmodernism began, a time between the creations of Aldo Rossi and the looks of of violating modernist doctrines. In architecture, the Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s [ ctional character: “his paradigm of the modernist movement was questioned cylindrical body, gangly columnar legs and arms, and a “revolution the against revolution” 7 began.
    [Show full text]
  • Ernesto Nathan Rogers
    ISBN 978-2-86364-286-3 / 1950-1980 italienne, architecturale Bernardo Secchi Daniele Vitale Portoghesi Paolo Scolari Massimo Giovanna Gavazzeni Angelo Villa Cacciari Massimo Tafuri Manfredo Vittorio Gregotti Carlo Aymonino Giorgio Grassi Aldo Rossi Guido Canella Rogers Ernesto Nathan avant-garde Une Tendenza La — Mazzoni Cristiana / www.editionsparentheses.com www.editionsparentheses.com Bernardo Secchi Daniele Vitale Portoghesi Paolo Scolari Massimo Giovanna Gavazzeni Angelo Villa Cacciari Massimo Tafuri Manfredo Vittorio Gregotti Carlo Aymonino Giorgio Grassi Aldo Rossi Guido Canella Rogers Ernesto Nathan ISBN 978-2-86364-286-3 / 1950-1980 italienne, 1950-1980 italienne avant-garde une Cristiana Mazzoni É P É architecturale LA TENDENZA avant-garde Une Tendenza La — Mazzoni Cristiana / www.editionsparentheses.com www.editionsparentheses.com ISBN 978-2-86364-286-3 / 1950-1980 italienne, L’auteur remercie l’École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Strasbourg, ENSAS-Amup, pour le soutien apporté à la préparation de cet ouvrage. architecturale Traductions de l’italien : Marie Bels. avant-garde Une Tendenza La L ’ — Publiée avec le concours du Centre national du livre et de la Direction générale des patrimoines (Sous-direction de l’architecture) du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication Mazzoni Cristiana / Copyright © 2013, Éditions Parenthèses, Marseille, pour la présente édition et les traductions. © Franco Angeli Editore, Milan (p. 166-180) ; © Cluva, Venise (p. 195-226) ; © Edizioni Dedalo, Bari (p. 242-259) ; © Vittorio Gregotti, Milan (p. 227-241, 326-329) ; © Marsilio Editori, Venise (p. 162-165) ; © Officina Editori, Rome (p. 260-274) ; © Paolo Portoghesi, Rome (p. 299-304) ; © Fondation Aldo Rossi, Milan (p. 125-161) ; © Massimo Scolari, Venise (p.
    [Show full text]
  • Aldo Rossi Papers, 1943-1999
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85d8tjb No online items Finding aid for the Aldo Rossi papers, 1943-1999 Finding aid prepared by Laura Schroffel Finding aid for the Aldo Rossi 880319 1 papers, 1943-1999 Descriptive Summary Title: Aldo Rossi papers Date (inclusive): 1943-1999 Number: 880319 Creator/Collector: Rossi, Aldo, 1931-1997 Physical Description: 34.0 linear feet(31 boxes, 14 flat file folders, and 1 roll) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688 (310) 440-7390 Abstract: The Aldo Rossi papers contain a selection of works by the prolific architect, writer, artist and theorist. The collection includes notebooks, lectures and course materials, assorted writings and correspondence, drafts for publications, clippings and ephemera. A set of architectural drawings for the Palazzo dei Congressi, Milan (not realized) consisting of preliminary sketches and design plans as well as an architectural design in pencil and oil are also included. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is in Italian. Biographical / Historical Note One of the most important Italian architects of the second half of the 20th century Aldo Rossi is considered by some to be an integral author of the postmodern movement of architecture. Rossi received international acclaim not just as an architect but also as a designer, artist and theorist. Rossi was born in 1931 in Milan. He began his studies in architecture in 1949 at Milan Polytechnic.
    [Show full text]
  • Rome's Postwar Academies As Architecture's First Global Programs
    Eternal City to Open City: Rome’s Postwar Academies as Architecture’s First Global Programs Twenty years ago, as the American Academy in Rome celebrated a trium- phant centennial in 1994, architectural critic Joseph Giovannini questioned its value for architects. He asked how Rome could be “foundational” for a discipline operating within an increasingly “‘groundless’ and dispersed” cul- ture. “The Eurocentric impulse on which the Academy itself is premised” vio- lates the millennial reality of global multiculturalism, and the city’s classical architectural canon “represents the official culture that dominated others.”1 DENISE R. COSTANZO His lament that Rome is a “pervasive and demanding” instead of a “transparent” Pennsylvania State University presence echoes Le Corbusier’s famous warning that the city will maim impres- sionable young architects.2 For Giovannini, Rome violates modernist social and aesthetic ideals, as well as postmodern cultural sensibilities. To reside at an Academy—intentionally elite and exclusive, the “cancer” of French architecture to Le Corbusier—only compounds the damage. Such critiques helped shape this session. It rightly assumes that architectural educators hope today’s global programs will do more than find new “Romes” and create new “Academies.” While adapting to overwhelming changes in inter- national study’s parameters, these represent the conservative, outmoded tradi- tions against which they react. But the challenge of navigating today’s complex variables might inspire a certain nostalgia: at least Rome provided an automatic answer to where architects should go, and its academies offered predetermined answers to what they should do, and why. But that (apparent) certainty was decisively disrupted by the advent of modern architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • ZARCH 5.Indb
    The Quarto Cagnino District in Milan (1964-1973): Rationalist Figuration for a New Dimension of the Urban Space MARCO LUCCHINI Abstract The Quarto Cagnino district, like other Milanese social housing settlements, has a distinctly marked identity and, as with any other archi- tectural work, its framework calls for formulating a well-founded judgement based on the understanding of its context and the reasons that led the designers towards specific choices in form. The district designed for 1100 dwellings (approximately 5000 inhabitants) was built in two distinct phases between 1964 and 1973. Regarding the settlement plan, the Quarto Cagnino appears as a largely scaled construction organised into one main building, to which are connected four aligned buildings, perpendicular to the main body and alternately placed on either side. Quarto Cagnino faces with the problem of the integration of the dwellings providing an adequate amount of services, of which the scarcity had been one of the deficiencies of large popular districts. The image of the large dam, referring also explicitly to the theme of city walls, was associated with the idea of a constant permeability. The stereometric and Cartesian volumes of the buildings are built upon a powerful base of reinforced concrete that seems to lift itself from the ground thanks to a grid of cylindrical pillars. The open plan of the ground floor is an obvious reference to Le Corbusier and his Unité d’habitation quoted almost literally. The open ground floor enables se- condary roads to be drawn underneath the buildings, emphasizing the image of the great structure that connects with communication ne- tworks and guarantees a good development of service activities: some to the scale of the district such as primary and secondary schools, gymnasiums and the church, others to the scale of the building itself such as common spaces in which to gather.
    [Show full text]
  • Carlo Aymonino: the Critical Curiosity of a Visionary Architect
    The Plan Journal 6 (1): 285-293, 2021 doi: 10.15274/tpj.2021.06.01.15 Carlo Aymonino: The Critical Curiosity of a Visionary Architect Maurizio Sabini Exhibition Review / CRITICISM Exhibition “Carlo Aymonino. Fedelta’ al tradimento / Loyalty to Betrayal” Triennale, Milan, May 14 – August 22, 2021 From an idea by Livia and Silvia Aymonino Curated by Manuel Orazi Exhibition Design by Federica Parolini Catalog edited by Manuel Orazi (Milan: Electa, 2021) A major retrospective on Carlo Aymonino, upon the tenth anniversary of his passing (falling last year in 2020), has been recently inaugurated at the Milan Triennale and will run until August 22, 2021. The show tries to address an important gap in our contemporary architectural culture, as rightly noted by Triennale’s President Stefano Boeri: “[with this exhibition] the Triennale is filling the large and inexplicable void that has been created around the figure of one of the most talented and influential architects of our twentieth century.” 1 Born out of an idea by Livia and Silvia Aymonino (Carlo’s daughters) and curated by Manuel Orazi, the exhibition offers, through a theatrically unfolded narration, aptly assigned to the expertise of scenographer Federica Parolini, an articulated, multi-layered and rich overview of Aymonino’s works and life (1926-2010). And, especially, drawings. Artistically born as a painter, to move later into architecture under the pragmatic pressure of his father Aldo (a military officer from Piedmont) who encouraged the young Carlo to intern in 1944 in the office of his own cousin, influential and well connected Roman architect Marcello Piacentini, Aymonino never renounced to nurture his natural passion for 285 The Plan Journal 6 (1): 285-293, 2021 - doi: 10.15274/tpj.2021.06.01.15 www.theplanjournal.com drawing.
    [Show full text]
  • New Perspectives on the II CIAM Onwards: How Does Housing Build Cities?
    Urban Planning (ISSN: 2183–7635) 2019, Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 76–82 DOI: 10.17645/up.v4i3.2430 Editorial New Perspectives on the II CIAM onwards: How Does Housing Build Cities? Alessandro Porotto and Chiara Monterumisi * Laboratoire de Construction et Conservation, Faculté de L’Environnement Naturel, Architectural et Construit, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; E-Mails: [email protected] (A.P.), [email protected] (C.M.) * Corresponding author Submitted: 26 August 2019 | Published: 30 September 2019 Abstract Far from nostalgically celebrate the 90th anniversary of the second CIAM, which indeed opened in October 1929 in Frankfurt, the present issue is intended as collective work, a springboard which aims to widen the debate over housing ex- periences beyond geographical and temporal frameworks. The focus of that event, the Existenzminimum, has often been cited as representing a fundamental contribution to the rational design of the modern dwelling. But the debates during that event went beyond the definition of this concept, because demonstrated, on the one hand, how the responsibility of architects would imply the resolution of multiple technical aspects, starting from the typological concern stretching to- wards the town planning aspects, and on the other hand, the calling to develop a multifaceted intellectual vision of society. Though the title selected for the present issue, namely ‘Housing Builds Cities’, denotes the different scales of the project, the aim is to achieve a something more. First and foremost, the objective is not strictly confined to a historical understand- ing of facts around the 1929 congress. Today a critically objective approach is useful to examine past contributions and, if applicable, their actualization.
    [Show full text]