Beyond ModernismThe critique to Rationalism

Alberto Iacovoni, Marialuisa Palumbo | Cornell in Rome

Warsaw after Second World War

1. This is Tomorrow

Paolozzi, Drink Dr.Pepper, 1948

This Is Tomorrow, Whitechapel Art Gallery, August 1956, London

This is modern art to entertain people, modern art as a game people will want to play. The sense of involvement and fun carries through in the press clippings; journalists were most taken by the fact that the show was opened by Robby the Robot, star of the sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet and easier to book than Marilyn Monroe.Reyner Banham

Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, 1956

1967

Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon, 1959

The project of New Babylon only intends to give the minimum conditions for a behaviour that must remain as free as possible. Any restriction of the freedom of movement, any limitation with regard to the creation of mood and atmosphere, has to be avoided. Everything has to remain possible, all is to happen, the environment has to be created by the activity of life, and not inversely.Constant

Constant Nieuwenhuys. New Babylon Nord, 1971

CIAM 2, The Existenzminimum, 1929

2. From CIAM to Team 10

CIAM 4, The Functional City, 1933

Ernesto N. Rogers, Jose Luis Sert and Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, The Heart of the City, CIAM VIII, 1952

Alison and Peter Smithson, CIAM IX, 1953

Nigel Henderson

Van den Broek & Bakema, The Lijnbaan shopping promenade, Rotterdam, 1953

Alison and Peter Smithson, CIAM X, 1956

Otterlo Meeting 1959, organized by Team 10

Alison and Peter Smithson, Robin Hood Gardens, 1966-1972

Alison and Peter Smithson, Street in the air, 1953

Aldo van Eyck, Orphanage, Amsterdam, 1960

Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic, Shadrach Woods, Toulouse le Mirail, 1962-1972

3. The Italian Retreat

Belgioioso, Peressutti e Rogers (BBPR), Torre Velasca, Milano, 1950-57

“Abbiamo dovuto recuperare il senso della tradizione che, pur vivendo implicito nelle opere dell’architettura moderna… era stato messo provvisoriamente in disparte nell’azione rivoluzionaria della polemica di cui doveva colorarsi ogni azione contingente per vincere le remore del culturalismo accademico, nostalgico e reazionario”

“Ora, se vi è qualcosa di insito negli europei… è il senso della storia…”

“Contro il cosmopolitismo… noi dobbiamo cercare di armonizzare le nostre opere con le persistenze ambientali, sia con quelle della natura che con quelle create storicamente dall’ingegno umano”

“crediamo ancora nell’utilità di una battaglia ideale nel campo dell’architettura, nei suoi profondi contenuti umani, politici, sociali, in senso antifascista, democratico, progressista”

E.N.Rogers

Ignazio Gardella, Abitazioni alle Zattere, Venezia, 1958

Gabetti e Isola, La Bottega d’Erasmo, Torino, 1953

L.Quaroni, M.Ridolfi, Quartiere Tiburtino a Roma, 1954

Federico Gorio, Michele Valori, Ludovico Quaroni, Piero Maria Lugli, Luigi Agati, La Martella, Matera, 1952-1954

4. 1966: 3 books and 3 possible directions...

1

Alison e Peter Smithson, scuola di Hustanton, 1949-54

Archigram, Plug-in city, 1964

Archigram, Walking Cities, 1964

Archigram, Ron Herron, Instant City, 1969

Haus-Rucker-Co, Yellow Hearth, 1968

"...The device consisted of a pulsating bubble inside a large inflatable capsule, which was supported by a waist-high metal frame. At it's core was a bed with ample room for two people to recline and take it easy. A repeat pattern of inflation and deflation created a soft, pulsating rhythm, to which the inhabitants were supposed to adapt and relax."

Haus-Rucker-Co, Yellow Hearth, 1968

"...Mind-Expander I and Mid-Expander II were similar to the helmets, only bigger and with an intimate seating arangement for two. They featured an electronic display of light and sound, which was intended to induce a trance-like state similar to that reached through mind-bending drugs or a shamanic ritual."

Superstudio, Adolfo Natalini, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Alessandro and Alberto Magris, Pietro Fassinelli, 1966.

Superstudio, Architettura Interplanetaria, 1967

Superstudio, Monumento Continuo, 1969

Superstudio, Supersuperfice, 1972

Archizoom, Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Dario and Lucia Bartolini, Massimo Morozzi, No-Stop City, 1969

Archizoom, No-Stop City, 1969

2

Venturi, Complextity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966

Robert Venturi, Decorated Shed diagrams in “Learning From Las Vegas”, 1972

Robert Venturi, Decorated Shed

Charles Moore, Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans 1975-78

3

Rossi, The Architecture of the City, 1966

Aldo Rossi, progetto per il nuovo teatro Paganini e sistemazione di piazza della Pilotta a Parma, 1964

Aldo Rossi, Carlo Aymonino, Gallaratese, 1969-73

Aldo Rossi, Cimitero di Modena, 1971

Aldo Rossi, La città analoga, Biennale di Venezia, 1976

Aldo Rossi, Teatro del Mondo, Venezia 1979, Biennale di Venezia 1980

5. Collage City

1978