Brunella Angeli

"L’archivio dell’architetto Prospero Sorgato, donato generosamente dalla famiglia al Comune di Reggio Emilia
e conservato presso la Biblioteca Panizzi, custodisce le importanti testimonianze di un protagonista delle trasformazioni urbane della nostra città a partire dagli anni venti fino all’immediato dopoguerra.
A partire dal secondo decennio del secolo scorso Sorgato compie una serie di rilevanti interventi come lo Chalet dei Fratelli Bottazzi ai Giardini Pubblici (non più esistente), l’ingresso e il padiglione centrale della celebrata Mostra Agricola Industriale del Lavoro tenuta nel 1922. Successivamente realizza il Mercato Coperto, recentemente restaurato e portato a nuova vita, la Casa del Mutilato in zona Porta Castello e l’ingresso e l’ampliamento del Cimitero di S. Pellegrino. E’ stato per lungo tempo ingegnere capo del Comune di Reggio Emilia, quando ha progettato e realizzato numerose opere pubbliche quali scuole, edifici per la residenza e altri servizi di pubblico interesse. Appassionato sportivo di tiro a volo, mostra anche un grande interesse verso la fotografia e per questo motivo l’archivio include pure un’importante documentazione fotografica delle sue realizzazioni.
L’archivio di Prospero Sorgato è stato riordinato, catalogato e reso disponibile per la consultazione."

Since the end of 1950s Pietro Derossi  has kept an approach to architecture which can be defined practical and theoretical, material and mental, concrete and abstract. His ability in penetrating the architectural matter was born exactly from this attitude, consequently he adheres constantly to reality and is capable of calling it into question continuously.
In this volume his essays have been gathered up for the first time; he deals with the most concrete themes of the architect, his relationship with customers, the urban context, the materiality of the building, the confrontation with the fruitioners. For this, these writings are addressed to everyone who loves architecture and considers it as something complex, stratified, intimately contradictory.
Derossi has designed residential buildings, private houses, offices and schools; he has put into relation art and space in settings-up of exhibitions and museums, he has also designed restaurants, discos and many objects. In his work, Pietro Derossi has always dialogued with the hermeneuthical philosophy but he has never idealised anything, neither thoughts nor buildings. On the contrary, he resorts to irony, both in his designs and writings and looks at things from a different point of view, trying to overthrow or at least innovate their meaning. It is exactly through this device that  Derossi is able to transmit to the reader the most precious object, his enthusiasm for the architecture.
The book tells the story of his life-long experience and is a sort of non conventional anti-dogmatic guide full of ideas, to teach architects the difficult job of designing. It is not by chance that  architecture rhymes with adventure, as stated by the author in the title itself.