Current research concentration on constructed and imagined spaces in post-World War IIEuropean Modernism. Specialization in European and American art, architecture, urbanismand aesthetic discourses since 1900 with an interest in the wider interdisciplinary nature and history of urban spaces. Methodological basis in object relations theory in psychoanalysis and cultural criticism. Address: Berlin and Savannah
We must invent and rebuild ex novo the modern city like an immense, tumultuous building yard, agi... more We must invent and rebuild ex novo the modern city like an immense, tumultuous building yard, agile, mobile, dynamic in all its parts, and the modern house like a gigantic machine. Elevators must not huddle in stairwells like solitary worms, rather staircases -now rendered useless -must be abolished, and elevators must swarm up the facades like serpents of iron and glass. The house of cement, glass, iron, stripped of painting and sculpture, enriched solely with the inherent beauty of its lines and its relief, extraordinarily ugly in its mechanical simplicity, as tall and as wide as it need be rather than as prescribed by municipal law, must rise on the brink of a tumultuous abyss: the street will no longer stretch out like a doormat at ground level but will plunge into earth by means of several stories that will bring together the traffic of the metropolis and be connected by metalcatwalks and swift-moving conveyor belts for necessary displacements.
Buildings and urban construction are understood in this paper as representations of the city. The... more Buildings and urban construction are understood in this paper as representations of the city. Their meanings, however, are often invisible, positing unrealized urban visions, which are both imbedded in and which call up chains of associations expressing desires and fears. Narratives of what the city should be often contain the rejection of the existing urban situation. Understanding architectural objects as potential underscores their imaginary nature. Freud, for example, uses the Roman ruins in Civilization and its Discontents (1929) as a means to imagine stages of history. Yet, meanings of the new can also be covered over and layered. Milan is a city with fragments of the new, which once projected an ideal urban space into the future. The potentiality of Milan’s postwar urban objects is analyzed in relationship to narratives of the city and insertion is framed as an imagining into the city.
The high-rise not only gives a recognizable image to urban space, but also represents a mode of l... more The high-rise not only gives a recognizable image to urban space, but also represents a mode of living in the big city. This paper concentrates on the representation of Milan through the high-rise in post-World War II film. Images from films ranging from Ragazze d’oggi (Luigi Zampa. 1955) to Milano Nera (Gian Rocco and Pino Serpi, 1961) and La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) will be discussed. Representation is understood here as a model for living in the city, so that the built goes beyond the strictly material. It is through film that the cultural associations present in the image of the skyscraper can be acted out. These associations are approached as dream-like narratives in which spaces are layered. The new projects over the old, which remains present and at times visible, depending upon the perspective given.
The postwar period in Milan was a time in which the transformational possibilities of the Lombard... more The postwar period in Milan was a time in which the transformational possibilities of the Lombard metropolis were palpable. Architects looked to the future in planning an ideal city onto a pre-existing one heavily damaged in World War II. In doing so, they looked back to the relatively young tradition of modern architecture in Italy, while simultaneously re-ordering its narratives. Concentrating on three major elements of the new city, skyscrapers, housing, and city planning, this book approaches Milan as an ideal city of the postwar period through architecture, film, and print media. http://mimesisinternational.com/evoking-the-new-city-milan-from-post-world-war-ii-reconstruction-through-the-economic-miracle/
We must invent and rebuild ex novo the modern city like an immense, tumultuous building yard, agi... more We must invent and rebuild ex novo the modern city like an immense, tumultuous building yard, agile, mobile, dynamic in all its parts, and the modern house like a gigantic machine. Elevators must not huddle in stairwells like solitary worms, rather staircases -now rendered useless -must be abolished, and elevators must swarm up the facades like serpents of iron and glass. The house of cement, glass, iron, stripped of painting and sculpture, enriched solely with the inherent beauty of its lines and its relief, extraordinarily ugly in its mechanical simplicity, as tall and as wide as it need be rather than as prescribed by municipal law, must rise on the brink of a tumultuous abyss: the street will no longer stretch out like a doormat at ground level but will plunge into earth by means of several stories that will bring together the traffic of the metropolis and be connected by metalcatwalks and swift-moving conveyor belts for necessary displacements.
Buildings and urban construction are understood in this paper as representations of the city. The... more Buildings and urban construction are understood in this paper as representations of the city. Their meanings, however, are often invisible, positing unrealized urban visions, which are both imbedded in and which call up chains of associations expressing desires and fears. Narratives of what the city should be often contain the rejection of the existing urban situation. Understanding architectural objects as potential underscores their imaginary nature. Freud, for example, uses the Roman ruins in Civilization and its Discontents (1929) as a means to imagine stages of history. Yet, meanings of the new can also be covered over and layered. Milan is a city with fragments of the new, which once projected an ideal urban space into the future. The potentiality of Milan’s postwar urban objects is analyzed in relationship to narratives of the city and insertion is framed as an imagining into the city.
The high-rise not only gives a recognizable image to urban space, but also represents a mode of l... more The high-rise not only gives a recognizable image to urban space, but also represents a mode of living in the big city. This paper concentrates on the representation of Milan through the high-rise in post-World War II film. Images from films ranging from Ragazze d’oggi (Luigi Zampa. 1955) to Milano Nera (Gian Rocco and Pino Serpi, 1961) and La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) will be discussed. Representation is understood here as a model for living in the city, so that the built goes beyond the strictly material. It is through film that the cultural associations present in the image of the skyscraper can be acted out. These associations are approached as dream-like narratives in which spaces are layered. The new projects over the old, which remains present and at times visible, depending upon the perspective given.
The postwar period in Milan was a time in which the transformational possibilities of the Lombard... more The postwar period in Milan was a time in which the transformational possibilities of the Lombard metropolis were palpable. Architects looked to the future in planning an ideal city onto a pre-existing one heavily damaged in World War II. In doing so, they looked back to the relatively young tradition of modern architecture in Italy, while simultaneously re-ordering its narratives. Concentrating on three major elements of the new city, skyscrapers, housing, and city planning, this book approaches Milan as an ideal city of the postwar period through architecture, film, and print media. http://mimesisinternational.com/evoking-the-new-city-milan-from-post-world-war-ii-reconstruction-through-the-economic-miracle/
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