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landscapes and architectural expression. of the first semester, in consultation with the DOCTORAL PROGRAM The second and third phase involve training supervisor. During the following five semesters, experience abroad, with participation in seminars the thesis is developed as other studies are carried IN ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION and research with which the doctoral candidate out, taking on a progressively more important role. is establishing relationships. The thesis is understood as research and must be characterised by cultural and scientific originality.

Doctoral thesis It may or may not have a design aspect. The | 2011 PhD Yearbook Maximum importance is given to the doctoral doctoral candidate is required to report regularly thesis. It constitutes the core and the conclusion on the progress of the thesis and to attend open of the doctoral candidate’s study and is attributed sessions, held in the presence of the teaching staff 37 The doctoral program is understood as advanced learning, rooted in a very large number of credits. The theme and and the other doctoral candidates, at which the Chair: the history of the architect’s craft, of the profession and of the wealth the formulation must be defined before the end thesis is discussed. Prof. Daniele Vitale of architectural techniques. The objective is to train architects who are capable professionals from a general point of view, with solid historical/humanistic training and a strong theoretical base, but who Doctoral Program Board also have extensive knowledge of town planning and construction techniques and who are able to carry out architectural design. The Marco Biraghi Marco Dezzi Bardeschi Attilio Pracchi training consists of the imparting of organised contents, the sharing Salvatore Bisogni Carolina Di Biase Marco Prusicki of research, and participation in cultural debate. As is the case in the other arts, composition is understood as an ensemble of conceptual Pellegrino Bonaretti Mario Fosso Gianpaolo Semino and technical fundamentals that precede the design project and to Enrico Bordogna Alberto Franchi Angelo Torricelli

which it refers. The faculty is composed of professors in the field of Giovanni Cislaghi Jacques Gubler Daniele Vitale ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION architectural composition, , restoration and construction. Adalberto Del Bo Vincenzo Petrini Stanislaus von Moos

Contents The course is based on a meeting between members of the teaching staff and external professionals from among those Advisory Board at the forefront of international debate. This dialectic serves as a reference and as a source for research. The course is divided Klaus Theo Brenner Maria Patrizia Grieco into integrated phases. (Architectural School of Postdam, Berlin) (Italtel) The first phase consists of a redefinition of positions and Jean-Louis Cohen (Université de Paris) Rafael Moneo responsibilities with respect to transformation of the territory (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University) and to evolution in the profession, in which the doctoral candidate Elio Franzini (Università Statale di Milano) Carlo Olmo is required to participate through research and contributions. (I Facoltà di Architettura, Politecnico di Torino) It consists, in addition to participation in optional Polytechnic courses and in addition to a two-semester seminar in architectural design, Paolo Gavazzi (Banco di Desio e della Brianza) Boris Podrecca (Fakultät für Architektur, Stuttgart) of two specific courses given by several lecturers during Franz Graf (Accademia di Architettura di Bruno Reichlin two semesters («Architectural History and Design» and «Criticism Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera italiana) (Università della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio) and architectural theories»). The second phase consists of a more specific, in-depth undertaking and deals with the problems of composition in relationship to architectural design, on one hand through two courses («Figures Scholarship Sponsors of architecture and forms of construction» and «Conservation and design»), and on the other hand by means of a second architectural EuroMilano S.p.A. - via Eritrea, 48/8 - 20157 Milano design seminar. These courses will also involve several lecturers and New agreements and protocols are going to be made with other enterprises are divided into two semesters. The third phase consists of increased involvement of the doctoral candidates in more specific research and themes, ranging from the theoretical debate in Europe and in Italy to the question of the old/ new relationship, to the question of settlement- and founded-city structures, to research into the cultural and figurative identities of 38

Utopia and architecture: still possible bedfellows? Planning and formal outcomes PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Cecilia Bischeri

39 Utopia and architecture: still is Utopia’s primary characteristic, more obvious, the search for possible bedfellows? The title is the one that distinguishes it a solution – to what had been clear enough – and controversial from any truly unrealizable idea thought an unchallengeable enough: for this juxtaposition – from ideas, that is, that give destiny – provides an of Utopia and architecture has reality the slip – and from barren opportunity for society to take a long history involving not only ideologies. stock of itself. Awareness of the various meanings given to this critical condition, diagnosed “Utopia” but also differences in The “transformative” role I from various points of view, is understanding the relationship propose in this study to attribute now widespread. of each with architecture. to architecture is structural in intent. It acts within that “The idea of an all-powerful

This rich variety of relationships very framework of “practical market without rules, in which ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION is doubtless due to the fact Utopian” sentiment which, as politics has not a word to say, 1. Kostantin Mel’nikov, Club Rusakiov, 2. Fruto Vivas, the “Los Erasos” 3. Alexandre Delijaicov, Andre Takiya, that architecture has its own Ernst Bloch points out, tends to is folly... The era of laissez-faire Moscow, 1927, external view barrio [shanty town], Caracas, Wanderley Ariza, Rogerio David Rizk, 1991, studio sketch Combined Education Centre, São inherent Utopian susceptibilities, be the driving force in any act is finished”. So says not Fidel Paulo, Brazil, 2003: the disc of the which make it “predisposed” of transformation that properly Castro but President Nicolas nursery school (left) and the main to such concepts. This Utopian stems from experiments in which Sarkozy, who wooed and won classroom building vocation, if we briefly try to a committed designer meets the voters by promising yet abstract from the manifold an enlightened patron (often less government and more quotation from Bloch suggests periphery, wherever and as symptomatic of a renewed tendencies that proliferate in an unusually progressive city market.[...] The idea that the that, like philosophical however these imbalances critical awareness, and of architectural culture, is to be council), and the two engage present financial catastrophe knowledge, architectural appear) and of citizen behaviour demands that are now being seen in the power which the in an all-encompassing plan to is the beginning of the end of experimentation – founded in a (a more evolved and appropriate urgently pressed. practice of architecture wields transform both city and society. capitalism is widespread, and method structurally aware both organisation of the functional over any given initial conditions Furthermore, as the term has so largely accepted on all sides, of what is real and of what is systems for living in society). – the power to transform their many meanings, the relationship whether with glee or regret”. being designed – should never What it seeks to establish, looks, if nothing else. We need, between architecture and Utopia (Mo i s e s Na i m , But capitalism isn’t settle for mere contemplation of accordingly, is the ability of this therefore, to define briefly what needs to be set in a historical finished, in “L’Espresso” LIV, n° the present but, on the contrary, theme – “Utopia” – to point the we mean by “Utopia”. context if only to forestall any 41, 16 October 2008) must strive to become a tool for culture of architectural design temptation to “make all things planning the future. and teaching in the direction The term “Utopian” has ossified: new” – and to bring Rogers’ Clearly, then, architecture must of a “broad highway in which nowadays it generally means watchword, “the Utopia of act, and act from within a The basic argument of this expertise and consciousness can just “imaginary”. Philosophically, reality”, up to date in our “Utopia” (i.e. a framework for study, then, is the need for be organized” (Guido Canella). though, behind its multiplicity present-day circumstances. action) that allows for a way an architecture that can of interpretations it expresses out of the present stagnation . rediscover a Utopian viewpoint, For further evidence of returning something that must have the Moreover, the desire to give Indeed, “knowledge conceived meaning realistic project interest in the issues raised potential to become quite real, the subject another airing is as conscious theory-with- design that undertakes to by the present transition, one and in the near future too. unavoidably bound up with the practice refers to Becoming play its transformative part might point to the convention According to Karl Mannheim in present situation: an economic and to that which is yet to be in terms both of structure organized in Rome in June “Ideology and Utopia” it is this crisis so severe as to bring the decided, while contemplative (the imbalances between 2008 by the Accademia capacity to become real, through dominant free-market ideology knowledge on the other hand global North and South, city Nazionale di San Luca entitled a revolutionary process that into question. As that ideology’s can only refer by definition and countryside, centre and “What is architecture for?” subverts the existing order, that crumbling features become to What Has Become”. The 40

Architecture and rural settlement design in the Jewish colonisation of Palestine under the British Mandate PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Axel Fisher

41 The Jewish colonisation The thesis is organized in three rural colonisation aimed at land of Palestine at the end of the parts. Part 1 begins with the reclamation and improvement. 19th century and afterwards historical roots of the great with the creation of the State Jewish migrations and the Part 3 considers two critical of in 1948 is a central spread of “agrarianism” moments in the definition event of modern history as well in the later 19th and early 20th of the Zionist “Nation Space”. as a source of ongoing friction centuries. It introduces some Its first chapter is a in world politics. Among other other campaigns for rural reconsideration of the Zionist things, it involved the most colonisation – alternatives to rural villages designed by ambitious and conscious attempt Palestine, promoted by European Kauffmann in the 1920s, to formulate a positive response governments or Jewish placing them on the map

to the Jewish migrations of philanthropic organisations together with other coeval ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION modern times. Turning its back based in Europe and America projects by the same architect 1. Richard Kauffmann, Bird’ s eye view 2. Forms of rural micropolycentrism: plan of the Eastern Kishon block, including on Europe, Zionism offered a – in Tsarist Russia, Argentina, for the Haifa Bay and the of a co-operative agricultural village: , , kibbutz , Kibbutz , moshav , 1921 moshav , Agricultural experimental station, 1927 self-emancipation project which North Africa and the Soviet agrocity of . The was at once a social project Union. comparison reveals an early geography and nature. successes and failures within and a settlement project. experiment in pre-state regional Part 3’s second chapter – the the paradoxes and historic In the Zionist “grand narrative”, Part 2 reviews the experience planning; a new system of last in the thesis – shows how ambiguities of these projects, the construction of a new of rural colonisation in what settlements hierarchically the 1930s were for the Zionist including some that involved landscape was coextensive was first Ottoman and then organised and functionally project a period of closing in on “roads not taken”. with the nation-building process; British-mandated Palestine, integrated along ancient trade itself: in the dominant ideology, and so this landscape of concentrating on the routes and new transport the figurative arts, settlement This makes it possible to recover emancipation and of conquest contributions made by several infrastructure in the Jezreel strategies and in architecture the truly original content is riddled with paradoxical generations of agronomists, Valley, an expression on the we see a gradual abandonment of Jewish rural colonisation: features whose ambivalences sociologists, architects and territorial scale of the attempt to of radical aims to “return to the the search for alternatives demand to be recognized: planners to the emerging give a new destiny to the future soil” in favour of the “cult of to the European industrial city, the values of liberation and features and forms of the Jewish nation in the regional the nation”. The autonomy the involvement of the natural land-grab coexisted under agricultural village: for that context of the Middle East. and self-sufficiency of the future landscape and vegetation 3. Richard Kauffmann (drawing by the nationalist banner like topos was assigned primary During this period architectural Jewish nation is asserted, and in architectural composition, Kurt Reinsch), View of the planned two opposing Messianic importance in the rebuilding design and town planning even the use of force is called the role played by typological “City at the heart of the Valley” in the fires: the universal claims of new individual and collective both played their parts in the into play. articulation and by figuration , 1925 of world revolution and the identities. This part examines construction of a truly voluntary in defining collective identities, exceptionalist character in depth the invention of the geography. Term is borrowed The comparison between these and the importance of of Zionist redemption. kibbutz (collectivist village) from French “géographie settlement projects shows the considering architecture and the moshav (cooperative volontaire” in the sense of role played by architecture – in relation to the broader Our question now is how to village) through the work of intentional and not of free- as a means of symbolic and “geographic setting” resolve the ambiguities implicit the architect Richard Kauffmann willing, laying the foundations collective representation, on a national scale. in the overlaps between modern (1887-1958). This was a for the conquest of new and as an instrument for architecture and the process balancing-point between two economic and geopolitical roles, the organisation of new of nation-building which traditions: the experience of the founded on agriculture and patterns of activity and social characterised the Modernist German Garden City movement setting up original and structural behaviour – and enables us to project in such a context? and the European tradition of relationships with history, distinguish various possibilities, 42

it is some of Kahn’s 1950s Boullée (1967), Architecture in – not the least of its open Modern architecture projects that show a real and the Age of Reason (1973). Rossi breaks with previous attitudes. never unacknowledged love was perpetually fascinated by Various tributary streams – “pure and the Enlightenment of French architecture (and the way Boullée put forward visibility” applied not only to Continuity in figuration, from the work of Emil Kaufmann especially Ledoux) so far as a development of forms at once problems of form but also to form is concerned,. The Indian logical and sublime (as in his the question of the symbolic

Institute of Management in 1785 design for a royal library) content of a work of art (Adolf | 2011 PhD Yearbook Gloria Piccolo Ahmedabad, the Adath Jeshuran and the way he arranges for his von Hildebrand, Konrad Fiedler); Synagogue for Elkins Park, the masses to be lit, using only one Wölfflin’s opposed concept permitted kind of decoration, pairings; the idea of a history of 43 The thesis begins with to Le Corbusier: the Origin and by ). The thesis that of shadows. In Rossi’s view art without names and without a historical investigation Development of an Autonomous involves a critical arrangement it was only with the coming leaps; the re-evaluation of crafts of considerable importance Architecture (, 1933, of a whole set of materials of the French Revolution, and of long-forgotten periods of in the 20th century, that of in German), Three Revolutionary and accounts; but it also aims that public building began to history – allowed Emil Kaufmann Emil Kaufmann (1891-1953) Architects: Boullée, Ledoux, to investigate to what extent represent the society in which to interpret the work of Ledoux, who undertook to revisit late Lequeu (Philadelphia, 1952), Enlightenment-related themes it lived; and with that the Boullée and Lequeu with 18th century architecture and Architecture in the Age of are really current in architectural architect’s role changed from ardent admiration, his interest its figuration from a Modern Reason (Cambridge, Mass., research, as Kaufmann had a master of technical solutions concentrating on formal aspects standpoint, and considered it 1955) – were to introduce first claimed as early as 1933 in for constructional problems and the archive details that bore had some valuable suggestions Europe and then America to his historical reconstruction that to a master of civic enterprise witness to them. But it was for architectural language – both the work of the “revolutionary is indeed effective besides being and commitment. Kaufmann himself who was the

manner and matter – in the architects”. These had, according ideological and artificial. The six compositional Modern movement’s first active ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION second half of the 20th century, to Kaufmann, anticipated many French culture had a decisive 1. Emil Kaufmann, Von Ledoux bis Le interpretations in the “Interval” witness, as other historians also in terms of a dialectical of the distinctive features influence on both Louis Kahn Corbusier, cover of the first edition section offer – by way of came to be, influenced likewise relationship between of Modern architecture which and Aldo Rossi, from their corroboration of Kaufmann’s by the Wiener Schule: they “continuity” and “crisis”. had itself – in 1933, when earliest student days. The former Rochester Unitarian Church historical theories – a eventually built a critique and My study is built around his first book came out – attended lectures at Pennsylvania and the Jewish Community detailed analysis firstly of the championed a style that set five characters: the two barely become established University given by Paul Philippe Centre in Trenton all reproduce models which inspired some out to be international. “revolutionary” architects but was already looking for Cret, whose neoclassicism compositional combinations “revolutionary” designs and Boullée and Ledoux, the the reassurance of historical derives from the French Beaux- that are based on the secondly of the figurative historian Emil Kaufmann who credentials. His efforts at tracing Arts tradition which he had geometrical strength and purity legacy inherited by Modern unearthed their lives and works, ’s ancestry in past received from Guadet in Paris. that came to public buildings architecture. A scaling-down and two masters of 20th century French architecture were at odds The latter was an admirer of in the Enlightenment, when of spaces designed for public architecture, Louis I. Kahn and with a Germanophile thread Boullée from his youth, and their civic role was conceived events makes the Hôtel Aldo Rossi, each of whom of history-writing whose read the works on the history anew as a space designed to Guimard by Ledoux one of the acknowledged an 18th century beginnings can be traced of the city by Fustel de accommodate not a function earliest models for the modern fellow spirit (Ledoux and Boullée in Paul Klopfer’s From Palladio Coulanges, Marcel Poëte and but rather the rituals of the bourgeois residence. The higher respectively) found through to Schinkel (1911) and which led Pierre Lavedan. community. accommodation standards for reading Kaufmann. eventually to the architecture of Boullée exists/Ledoux exists/ Aldo Rossi’s fondness for the saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Emil Kaufmann’s education Albert Speer. 1933 was a crucial Therefore architecture exists. the French 18th century took can be seen as a concrete as a historian of art was in year in the political history of So went some lines of a poem three different forms: first, in anticipation of Howard’s the Wiener Schule. In 1920 he Europe: From Ledoux to Kahn wrote for the catalogue his designs (as in the Palazzo Garden Cities, and a model for defended his doctoral thesis Le Corbusier was published of the exhibition Visionary dei Congressi in Milan or the 20th century designs for social under Max Dvorák; that thesis, a few months after the Hitler Architects: Boullée, Ledoux, Library at Seregno); second, communities. entitled “The Designs of the came to power in Germany. Lequeu (Houston, 1967-1968). in his choice of a repertoire Kaufmann’s wholly novel Architect Ledoux and the My thesis begins with That exhibition, mounted by of shapes (the sphere, the interpretation of the origins and Aesthetics of Classicism”, was Kaufmann’s attempt to trace the the Bibliotheque National de truncated cone, the tower, history of modern architecture wholly concerned with a person roots of the 20th century’s “new Paris and brought to America &c.); and third, his historical stems from what he learned who had until then attracted architecture” in the glorious past by the Menils, acknowledged research and publications on the from the Viennese School of Art no memorable research at all. of the French Enlightenment Emil Kaufmann as its parent Enlightenment: Emil Kaufmann History, an institution which from The three major publications rather than sharing the pan- in academic research and ideas. and Architecture in the Age of the very start aimed to make art that followed – From Ledoux Germanic view of it (advocated Most of all, however, Reason (1958), Introduction to history an independent discipline 44

Sentimental topography The Greek lineage of Aldo van Eyck PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Sara Riboldi

45 On 17 September 1983 make up his architecture space that has been designed in a retrospective exhibition on the and his thinking. every detail, where the architect work of Aldo van Eyck opened My thesis sets out to has constructed a rhythmical at the National Gallery (Ethnikì demonstrate that the work sequence of images each of Pinacotikì) in Athens. The show of Aldo van Eyck can be seen which in turn hints at the was curated by Van Eyck himself in an alternative light, one direction the visitor should take, and his wife Hannie van Roojen. that connects the this Dutch where they should look, where Its title was “AX BAX”, a Greek architect’s work with that they might linger. expression rather like a sigh, of certain Greek architects The second is the ongoing a sigh that asks for help. of the 1930s-1960s, whose search for an original matrix, The show included not only researches focused on the for the unchanging

the projects and constructed study of architecture in classical characteristics of architecture, ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION works of the Dutch architect, antiquity and the meaning of the primal elements and 1. AX BAX, Athens 1983. Plan of the exhibition and collage of exhibits.Drawing but also paintings and sculptures commemoration and continuity. forms required to construct by the author of the thesis by other artists, travel photos, His aim was to re-create the surroundings suited to people’s review of the four CIAM from the sphere of science quotations from poets and harmonious perfection typical physical and spiritual needs; in search of himself and his functions. The work of Aldo van to that of the imagination, writers, excerpts from essays, of classical Greek architecture. with this search comes a roots. He found those roots Eyck is an attempt to re-found triggering a process by which images and drawings of works The work presented here is confrontation with the past and in Greece, and in the work the discipline, distancing itself objective facts are always by Johannes Duiker and Dimitris intended as an exploration of with tradition, viewed in all their of Dimitris Pikionis. from the functionalist vision accompanied by an affect, Pikionis. It was a complex Aldo van Eyck’s work in search complexity as the foundation of the Modern Movement by a subjective mental construct. exhibition, alternating technical of one particular aspect, the for any new beginning rather in order to set out with a new That is the process Aldo van drawings with colourful “genealogical chain” that links than as a formal pattern-book interpretation of place Eyck wants to set in motion. sketches, photographs, mirrors, Aldo van Eyck, Dimitris Pikionis to be slavishly copied; the need and of human relationships. The thesis works backwards in and words brush-painted and their classical predecessors. to build appropriately implies The thesis offers an time from AX BAX, retracing directly onto the display panels. This rediscovered link is referred research into the formal roots interpretation of Aldo van Eyck’s the Dutch architect’s footsteps Viewing the exhibition required to here as “the Greek lineage”, of the history of architecture, work that reveals its traces not to rediscover his roots. AX BAX a constant mental effort to and mainly consists of two and a rediscovery of the principle only in a bid for independence is the start of the thesis, but the understand the subtle links elements to be seen both in of continuity with what has by the new generation to which end of a journey. The exhibition among all the things on display, Aldo van Eyck’s architecture gone before. he belonged, but also in its at the Ethnikì Pinacotikì of because from the outset it was and in his theoretical writings. re-engagement with Greece, Athens is, for my research, clear that all the works were Aldo van Eyck became part as a culture that could the starting point for connected by a single narrative The first is the idea of movement of a counter-trend in modern make new things in art and investigating the work thread. as a fundamental element architecture that alternates architecture by starting with of Van Eyck, in the light of AX BAX was not just an in making and understanding between accommodating tradition and using archetypal what he himself decided to exhibition but also a statement an architectural design; the arguments of the Modern forms. exhibit. AX BAX was Aldo van of belonging. It was Aldo van underlying all the Aldo van Movement and searching for “Topography” is the name of Eyck’s autobiography, a story Eyck’s bid to rediscover his own Eyck’s architectural works there a cultural tendency of one’s the discipline that studies the in which he tells of his teachers, roots and, at the same time, to is the human figure at the centre own. His work takes its place configuration of cities and the his inspirations, himself. explain his present identity. An of the created space, the moving within a panorama of major way they could be redesigned. It is the family tree he draws to “imaginary museum”, created person who observes, thinks and changes in which young people In association with rediscover and express his own by Van Eyck himself to house imagines. Movement becomes assert their own independence “sentimental”, the term shifts identity, a path travelled and display the “pieces” that the dominant theme inside a and advocate a methodological 46

The street and its architecture The case of Via Dante in Milan PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Pierfrancesco Sacerdoti

47 The thesis is about the street quality of Via Dante, through tackled by starting from direct concur to form the space of Via as a result of the aggregation in depth analysis of its buildings experience of the buildings Dante: the ‘dialogue’ between of several architectural units, and the rapport between and from the documents in buildings, their relationship and specifically about the them, considering that it could the archives. The central issue with the surrounding public relationship between the street provide ideas for planning new is the architectural analysis of spaces and monuments, and the residential building urban developments. One of the buildings and the analysis and the rapport between with shops in the second half the most interesting aspects of their relationship within the the exterior façades and the of the nineteenth century. The of Via Dante is its overall unity space of the street. This work architecture of the courtyards. case study is that of Via Dante despite the differences between links up to a larger context, in Milan, which is important the façades. It is the theme that of urban anaysis studies, The fifth chapter consists for various reasons. The first of chorality, which refers to that belong to a tradition of of sections about the single

reason is that this street has an a harmonic rapport between studies that led to revelations buildings, set in chronological ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION important role in the structure different buildings. Each building of particular interest between 1. Via Dante and the Castle in a photo 2. Ground floor plan and façade order and based on the original of the city as an extension of expresses a different architectural the nineteen sixties and the from the early twentieth century of the building at 4 Via Dante plans conserved in the historical the axis of Corso Sempione conception, reflecting the culture nineteen eighties. The collected (Civico Archivio Fotografico, Milan) (drawing by the author) archive of the municipality of and as a street that links the of its author. Chorality may be material forms a large repertoire historical periods dealt with Milan. Various general themes, center with the Sforza Castle. considered as the capacity for of images that is complementary The second chapter investigates the problem of connecting partially connected with the Via Dante is also important combining general rules and to the text. Among this material the theme of Milanese the Sforza Castle with the fourth chapter, arise from this because it is one of the first individual expression, which some of the most important architectural culture during the centre, the relation of Via Dante analysis: the hierarchy of parts, new streets created in the old is a topical issue, and can be images are the montages of second half of the nineteenth with the larger system of urban the rule-variation relationship, city of Milan, and from this point considered as dialogue between the façades and of the ground century, in order to become spaces it belongs to, and the the conflict between tradition of view is closely connected buildings. The idea of urban floor plans of the buildings, acquainted with the ideas specific building regulation that and modernity, and the with the methods and results architecture that is expressed in that convey an overview of and knowledge of the architects was used for its construction. relationships between spaces of urban planning in Paris Via Dante is a valid alternative the relationships between them. of Via Dante. The main topics are and functions. during the Second Empire. to two other ways of building the issue of Italian national The fourth chapter is the central The conclusions of the thesis Along with Piazza Cordusio, the city: the architectural The first chapter of the thesis style and the choice section of the thesis. It relates concern some conspicuous issues Foro Bonaparte and Parco disorder that prevails nowadays deals with the issue of the of Neorenaissance architecture, to the aspects which influence that have arisen during research: Sempione, Via Dante forms the and the model of uniform architecture of the street the interest for technical culture the architecture of the buildings the relationship between most accomplished sequence façades. The concept of the in Second Empire Paris, and its circulation through of Via Dante, the ‘dialogue’ the the parts of the building, of urban spaces in nineteenth façade as an element that as a necessary introduction handbooks, the education takes place between them, and the influence of the buildings century Milan. This street is transmits quality to urban to a study on Via Dante. In this of architects in rapport with the rapport they establish with on the quality of urban space, also an important example of space is important: unlike many chapter the main topics are the the hegemonic personality the urban context. The aspects and the theme of monumentality. the architectural conception of urban schemes of the Modern opening of new streets in the of Camillo Boito. that have been investigated Lastly, a reference is made to the street in Milan at the end Movement the residential city centre, the relationships with are the criteria used for the the rapport between the topics of the nineteenth century, both building does not elude the monuments, the evolution The third chapter is about subdivision of blocks and lots, that have been analysed and thanks to the rules that aim at confrontation with the urban of building regulations, the Via Dante as part of the the way in which the buildings examples of contemporary urban a homogeneous result, and to space, but it becomes the main typologies and façades of houses transformation projects for are inserted in the lots, the role planning in Europe. the concentration of buildings element of its construction and for rent, and lastly the global the centre of Milan and also and composition of the façades, designed by the most important it conveys an idea of living in architcture of public spaces, about the principal phases of and the theme of the apartment milanese architects of the period. close connection with urban life. where a dialogue takes place its realization. The main topics building with shops. There The thesis is aimed at discovering between the new constructions are the analysis of the sequence follows an analysis of the rapport the reasons for the architectural The topic of the thesis has been and the preexisting urban fabric. of projects that in various between the elements that 48

Public spaces in the cities of Persia and Europe The two cases of Isfahan and Venice PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Elham Saffarzadeh

49 This research is based on a The first stage involves the of foreigners including and falling under the spell of comparison between two great simplest mode of diffusion ambassadors, missionaries and eastern cultures whose influence mercantile centres, Venice and of cultural content: that which artists. I have tackled two main would prove an enduring one, Isfahan. They are located on – takes place through direct themes in particular. both in art and in urban and at the ends of – trading routes, exchange. This exchange may The first is the presence spatial organisation. and thus form opposite poles be by trade or by the migration of foreigners and minorities, The coexistence of religious which despite their distance of craft workers: potters, gold- and the way in which buildings with those of royal had close relationships and and silversmiths, glass-makers, multiculturalism manifested itself power and government in the tensions of many kinds. Isfahan for instance. The second stage in the urban layout. I have also heart of the city (at a time when and Venice are quite separate is the assimilation and studied the presence of foreign cathedrals were still outside politically, and have their own adaptation of imported traders, who were conduits for cities); the association

specific cultural characteristics; materials, as often happens the exchange not only of goods, of other buildings and important ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION but each has at a certain in painting; and the third but of culture and ideas; and 1. Pascal Coste, View of the Naqš e Jahān Royal Square; right, the Āli qāpuo functions with trade (at a stage been referred to as a stage is a thorough-going I analyse the ways each city royal palace or High Gateway, leading to the royal gardens. Centre, the royal time when markets were still “Gateway”, the one that of transformation of the foreign sought to accommodate their mosque (from Coste, 1876) held outside the walls); the the East toward the West and acquisitions, especially visible in needs. juxtaposition of commercial, the other of the West toward mercantile types of architectural The second theme is the religious and civic functions the East. The impressive scale space and in particular in the historical development of (which was a defining feature of traffic between them has caravanserai which eventually public places. In both cities of the mercantile city); the influenced their histories, became the warehouse. we have a system composed grouping of corporations into and their religious, artistic, Many cultural products came of a civic centre and a zones, aligning craft workshops/ philosophical and scientific from Persia to Venice during commercial centre linked by stores and gathering each exchanges have led to a the early Middle Ages through a commercial road. Venice is craft in its own space (the thorough cross-fertilization the actual travel of individuals. organized on the basis of two characteristic layout of the of cultures. Ancient Persia charmed the separate poles around which bazaars, too); and the provision The particular object of my nascent Venetian Republic the urban fabric developed: of premises for foreign traders research is to compare the with its art forms, and later on the one hand the Piazza and businesses: all these things two cities’ public places, and with its miniatures, its craft San Marco and on the other 2. Gentile Bellini, Procession in the Piazza San Marco, 1496 corroborate this view. also their overall structures. glassware, its precious metals, the market of the Rialto, linked My basic thesis is that the carpets and fabrics, but also by the Mercerie. Isfahan’s became the main factor become the predominant player, trading and other exchanges with discoveries in science, monumental square is linked of the cities’ formation and spreads from the East to major between them have been major language and religion. These are to the bazaar in a different transformation and of the Mediterranean centres such as factors in shaping their urban matters that have been widely way, since the latter surrounds development of their urban Venice. Indeed, Venice leads structure. studied, but ones that still repay and encloses the former; but a cultures, both in Persia and the way in a thorough-going On the subject of cross- consideration and which still continuation of the bazaar links in the Mediterranean. The economic, military and political fertilization I refer to the have new lessons for us. I have it also to the Old Square. merchant townsfolk of oriental reorganisation. Through long- suggestions of Rudolf Wittkover tried to highlight various ways The dominant culture at the cities took a more active role in distance trade it reaches beyond in his work Allegory and in which and routes by which time when these two cities were political life, eventually acquiring continental boundaries and Migration of Symbols. The book the two cities were related, growing up was Arab culture: power and forming the comes into contact with oriental distinguishes three points or analysing the exchanges that it influenced not only the government. This kind of city, in civilisation, moving away from stages in transference from one took place through trade Mediterranean, but Persia too. which the merchant citizen has Byzantine and Lombard tastes civilisation to another. and through the presence In the Middle Ages trade 50

Modern architecture in Italy and Brazil Italian architects and their works in São Paulo PhD Yearbook | 2011 PhD Yearbook Maria Veronica Verzi

51 Tradition and the past have not São Paulo became the centre America; Gregori Warchavchik, main issues of city planning transforming them generally in the 1950s are a significant always been true boundaries of of an artistic and architectural who went to study in Italy as early related to the various projects in accordance with original aspect of the theoretical debate modernity in Brazil; architecture resurgence in Brazil; a circle as the 1920s soon afterwards discussed. and novel sensibilities and that accompanied the of Modern there has been open to new of intellectuals formed between built the first Modern houses The thesis highlights, through characteristics. The thesis architecture’s first establishment paths, though still reflecting the early 1920s and the late in Brazil; in 1947 the astute the evaluation of individual as a whole also tackles the there and its subsequent re- on the problem of its own roots 1950s and played midwife and capable art critic and dealer works, the part played by Italian question of the ideological examination: that debate and connections. South American to a new culture of the arts, in Italian art Pietro Maria Bardi, culture in the development debate about Brazilian is still of importance today. countries have proved fertile literature and architecture together with the entrepreneur of modern architecture in Brazil. architecture, where opposing experimental terrain for modern that was truly wide-ranging Assis Chateaubriand, founded Those works accommodate views rooted in the critiques architecture; modes and forms in expression and debate. The MASP (São Paulo Museum aspects of our own tradition, of formalism put forward derived from the European first major event was the Modern of Art) in Brazil; his wife Lina Bo,

movement have developed and Art Week (1922) organised an architect from Rome, became ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION taken on aspects all their own; in São Paulo by artists of the a leading light of the Brazilian buildings and landscapes are Modern movement; in the same architectural scene and did much shaped with a sense of plasticity city the Russian architect Gregori to blaze the trail of Modernism that makes them deeply original. Warchavchik published his there; Daniele Calabi from Padua, Manifesto Acerca da arquitetura already an established architect The thesis tackles the subject moderna three years later: in Italy, worked in Brazil for of modern Brazilian architecture “On Modern Architecture” ten years and brought his own and its relationship with Italian was one of the earliest writings version of the single-household culture; it concerns itself mainly in Brazil to handle issues related family home; Giancarlo Palanti, with the city of São Paulo, to Modernism. who had trained in Milan and which from the end of the engaged in its debates over 1. Gregori Warchavchik, the architect’s home in Rua Santa Cruz, 19th century became a major Italian architects played their part Rationalism, opened a studio São Paulo, 1927-1928 destination for Italian migration at the time, through discussion in São Paulo and became an to South America and saw the and influence from abroad and important practising architect establishment of a large and also through direct participation there; and there were many vigorous Italian community, in Brazilian developments. others. many of whose members played Many of those most involved a distinguished part in various were practising architects My research deals in particular walks of life. The first half who were already committed with the work of Gregori of the 20th century was a time to championing Rationalism Warchavchik, Marcello Piacentini, of rapid economic development and the Modern movement Vittorio Morpurgo, Giancarlo in Brazil, greatly boosted by the at home, and who Palanti and Daniele Calabi, all coffee trade which was mainly on arriving in Brazil proved leading players in some important concentrated in the state capable of making a considerable episodes of the city’s architecture. of São Paulo. The city set contribution, through their work, As well as the examining out on a dizzying growth path, to this process of renewal. individual buildings and a study 2. 1950s view from the Parco 3. Daniele Calabi, Villa Calabi, Anhangabaú; right, the Industrie São Paulo, 1945-1946 spreading out first horizontally of the enduring relationship Riunite Francesco Matarazzo building and later upwards with Reno Levi, born in Brazil to a with Italian architecture, I have by Marcello Piacentini and Vittorio skyscrapers and big company Jewish family, studied in Rome also briefly described São Paulo’s Morpurgo (1938); left, the Conde de Prates building by Giancarlo Palanti buildings. and then returned to South formation and history and the (1952)