- Tokyo
- The University of Tokyo, Architecture, Post-Docadd
- Architectural History, Albanian Studies, Tirana, Economics, Communication, Architecture, and 25 moreArt History, History, Social Sciences, History and Theory of Modern Architecture, Italian Fascist Architecture, Modern Italian Architecture, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Theory Of Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Studies, Landscape Architecture, Urban History, Interior Design, Visual perception, Museums and Exhibition Design, Symbolic Boundaries, Modern Ruins, Ruins, Architectural Preservation & Restoration, Urban Ruins, Historic Preservation, and Cultural Heritage Conservationedit
- Federico Scaroni is an Italian architect and PhD who is currently working as Professor in the Architecture Department... moreFederico Scaroni is an Italian architect and PhD who is currently working as Professor in the Architecture Department of the University of New York in Tirana and previously has been Post Doc Researcher in the Architecture Department of The University of Tokyo. After working as an architect at RBA Richard Bliah Associates and Nikken Sekkei firms in Tokyo, he opened his own firm in Rome, FSA Design and Research.
Winner of fellowships in Sapienza, University of Rome and The University of Tokyo, his researches are mostly focused in the study of the reconnection between historic and contemporary urban texture and its comparison between two situations as different as Rome and Tokyo.
Lecturer in the Japanese Universities Keio (2005) Tokyo (2010), Hosei (2010) and the Italian Universities of Rome (2007), Venice and Florence (2012), Pennsylvania Philadelphia (2014), Yasar in Izmir (2015), Gwangju (2015), since 2005 he founded two architectural offices of architecture in Rome, 4X1architetti and COD09 while after 2013 he opened his own architectural firm.
Author of several articles on Theory of Architecture, history and regeneration of the city on Japanese and Italian academic books, in the end of 2012 he published an article on the Japanese Urban History Annual while in 2017 he published his first two books, Along the Water, for Sayusha Publishing and Invisible Architecture for Silvana Editoriale.
As architect he designed and realized several shops mainly for Swarovski and Yamamay brands and many private apartments between Rome and Bruxelles.
For the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, he designed two exhibitions, "Italia Quotidiana" in 2004 and "Dalla Figuratività all'Astrazione" in 2006.
Between 2005 and 2007 he worked as quality and cost control responsible for the building site of the Shopping Mall RomaEST in Rome.
Since 2009 he divided his work through the fields of Interior Design, Exhibition Design, Mixed Use and Urban Planning both in Japan and Europe.
Academic expertise: University professor, researcher and lecturer on history and renovation of modern architecture.
Autocad, 3dstudio, SketchUp, Adobe programs.edit - Takeshi Ito, Kengo Kuma, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Kazuhiko Namba, Luigi Gazzola, Piero Ostilio Rossi, Daniela Fontiedit
Invisible strings bind two countries as diverse and as far away as Italy and Japan. Those strings are made of creativity, innovation, respect and sometimes criticism of history and tradition. One of these invisible strings is represented... more
Invisible strings bind two countries as diverse and as far away as Italy and Japan. Those strings are made of creativity, innovation, respect and sometimes criticism of history and tradition. One of these invisible strings is represented by architecture. Both countries have been able to be at the center of great revolutions and at the same time decided to ignore this capacity to create and innovate.
150 years have passed since the two countries started their relationships and just more than 50 since they were among the leaders of what has been the last global avant-garde movement in architecture with the Japanese Metabolists and the Italian Radicals. 50 years ago the two countries were in full demo- graphic, economic and cultural expansion, and those avantgardes well represented the vibrant seeds of their architectural proposals. In a curious parallel, 50 years after Italy and Japan live similar cultural and economic conditions and a new generation of architects deals with the timeless themes of living and design.
This volume and the eponymous exhibition present a new and innovative parallel be- tween the two countries, two generations, two ways of making architecture and to look into the future.
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Fili invisibili legano due paesi tanto diversi e lontani come Italia e Giappone. Sono quelli della creatività, dell’innovazione, del rispetto e talvolta della critica per la tradizione e la storia. Uno di questi fili invisibili è rappresentato dall’architettura. Entrambi i paesi hanno saputo essere al centro di grandi rivoluzioni e allo stesso tempo hanno deciso di ignorare questa loro capacità di creare e innovare. Centocinquanta anni sono passati da quando i due paesi hanno inaugurato i loro rapporti e poco più di cinquanta ne sono trascorsi da quando entrambi furono tra i protagonisti as- soluti di quella che è stata l’ultima avanguardia mondiale in architettura con le produzioni teoriche dei gruppi dei metabolisti giapponesi e dei radicali italiani. Cinquant’anni fa i due paesi erano in piena espansione demografica, economica e culturale e quelle avanguardie ben rappresentavano i fermenti più vivaci delle rispettive proposte architettoniche. In un curioso parallelo, cinquant’anni dopo Italia e Giappone vivono un’epoca di riflusso culturale ed economico e una nuova generazione di architetti e teorici dell’architettura affronta le tematiche senza tempo del vivere, dell’abitare e del progettare.
Questo volume e la mostra omonima presentano un inedito e innovativo parallelo tra i due paesi, tra due generazioni, tra due modi di fare architettura e di vedere il futuro.
150 years have passed since the two countries started their relationships and just more than 50 since they were among the leaders of what has been the last global avant-garde movement in architecture with the Japanese Metabolists and the Italian Radicals. 50 years ago the two countries were in full demo- graphic, economic and cultural expansion, and those avantgardes well represented the vibrant seeds of their architectural proposals. In a curious parallel, 50 years after Italy and Japan live similar cultural and economic conditions and a new generation of architects deals with the timeless themes of living and design.
This volume and the eponymous exhibition present a new and innovative parallel be- tween the two countries, two generations, two ways of making architecture and to look into the future.
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Fili invisibili legano due paesi tanto diversi e lontani come Italia e Giappone. Sono quelli della creatività, dell’innovazione, del rispetto e talvolta della critica per la tradizione e la storia. Uno di questi fili invisibili è rappresentato dall’architettura. Entrambi i paesi hanno saputo essere al centro di grandi rivoluzioni e allo stesso tempo hanno deciso di ignorare questa loro capacità di creare e innovare. Centocinquanta anni sono passati da quando i due paesi hanno inaugurato i loro rapporti e poco più di cinquanta ne sono trascorsi da quando entrambi furono tra i protagonisti as- soluti di quella che è stata l’ultima avanguardia mondiale in architettura con le produzioni teoriche dei gruppi dei metabolisti giapponesi e dei radicali italiani. Cinquant’anni fa i due paesi erano in piena espansione demografica, economica e culturale e quelle avanguardie ben rappresentavano i fermenti più vivaci delle rispettive proposte architettoniche. In un curioso parallelo, cinquant’anni dopo Italia e Giappone vivono un’epoca di riflusso culturale ed economico e una nuova generazione di architetti e teorici dell’architettura affronta le tematiche senza tempo del vivere, dell’abitare e del progettare.
Questo volume e la mostra omonima presentano un inedito e innovativo parallelo tra i due paesi, tra due generazioni, tra due modi di fare architettura e di vedere il futuro.
Research Interests:
Last 2011 March 11th the north of Japan was hit by one of the strongest earthquake ever registered in modern history. The tsunami waves that followed demonstrated once again how small is man’s real power on how to control nature. In 1908... more
Last 2011 March 11th the north of Japan was hit by one of the strongest earthquake ever registered in modern history. The tsunami waves that followed demonstrated once again how small is man’s real power on how to control nature. In 1908 Messina and Reggio Calabria faced the same destiny. Italy and Japan are two lands that, in their long history, faced an incredible number of natural catastrophes related to water, due to a similar unstable hydro-geological conformation. Both the two lands developed an entire system of culture related on the use and the protection from water. The book aims to propose analyses that will try to give an exhaustive yet partial view on the way Japan and Italy tried to handle and solve the struggle of urban crisis, with particular accent on the theme of water, its use for human needs and the defense from its potential danger.
The three editors have been working together in The Laboratory of Urban History of Prof. Takeshi Ito following the themes of the correlation between water, the city and the crisis of the urban system during history and with its reflections on contemporary times. The authors are recognized researchers, scholars and professors from Italy and Japan.
The book is divided in three main chapters, each of them analyzing a different point of view on how human organized urban society reacts or behaves respect to natural disasters involving water and how to live neighboring to the natural danger. The comparison between Italy and Japan is hence definitely important to underline how different cultures and urban settlements can respond to similar or comparable accidents from nature and water. Understandably the analysis is going to deepen different aspects of the problem, like how a society is able to represent its own relationship
with potential danger but also resource as water can be. The single articles will reflect the different interests of the authors offering distinctive points of view on the many faces that compose this topic.
- The first part tries to analyze the very moment when a natural water crisis happens and the immediate results and reactions of human society.
- The second part is about the relationship between probable crisis and prevention, so on how to live with potential disaster incoming and the reflections on urban society.
- The third part is about how Japan and Italy modeled their own territory in order to bring order to the natural chaos. How engineers designed their own safety and land use and how human society and culture flourished in the two countries around a source of life and of death as water.
The three editors have been working together in The Laboratory of Urban History of Prof. Takeshi Ito following the themes of the correlation between water, the city and the crisis of the urban system during history and with its reflections on contemporary times. The authors are recognized researchers, scholars and professors from Italy and Japan.
The book is divided in three main chapters, each of them analyzing a different point of view on how human organized urban society reacts or behaves respect to natural disasters involving water and how to live neighboring to the natural danger. The comparison between Italy and Japan is hence definitely important to underline how different cultures and urban settlements can respond to similar or comparable accidents from nature and water. Understandably the analysis is going to deepen different aspects of the problem, like how a society is able to represent its own relationship
with potential danger but also resource as water can be. The single articles will reflect the different interests of the authors offering distinctive points of view on the many faces that compose this topic.
- The first part tries to analyze the very moment when a natural water crisis happens and the immediate results and reactions of human society.
- The second part is about the relationship between probable crisis and prevention, so on how to live with potential disaster incoming and the reflections on urban society.
- The third part is about how Japan and Italy modeled their own territory in order to bring order to the natural chaos. How engineers designed their own safety and land use and how human society and culture flourished in the two countries around a source of life and of death as water.
Research Interests:
In the late 1950s, Tokyo was a rapidly growing city that aspired to shake off the horrors of its past, and the 1964 Olympics showed its new great potential. Because of their symbolic nature, the Games became an event that catalyzed world... more
In the late 1950s, Tokyo was a rapidly growing city that aspired to shake off the horrors of its past, and the 1964 Olympics showed its new great potential. Because of their symbolic nature, the Games became an event that catalyzed world attention, fostered cohesion among the citizenry, and provided an opportunity for urban renewal. The best minds of the time took part, leading to the creation of many hi-tech urban marvels.
The victory of the Japanese bid to host the 2020 Games offers a different tale. What meaning do these new editions have, when compared to the previous ones? How will the structures conceived by a new generation of architects be able to embody the contemporaneity of a stagnant country? Will Tokyo again be the answer to some of Japan’s current urban and social issues?
The victory of the Japanese bid to host the 2020 Games offers a different tale. What meaning do these new editions have, when compared to the previous ones? How will the structures conceived by a new generation of architects be able to embody the contemporaneity of a stagnant country? Will Tokyo again be the answer to some of Japan’s current urban and social issues?
Research Interests:
Durante i primi anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso l’imprenditore Pierino Tizzoni indisse un bando di progettazione per una “Località per le Vacanze” nella Riviera Ligure di Ponente. La maggior parte dei partecipanti portò un modello di... more
Durante i primi anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso l’imprenditore Pierino Tizzoni indisse un bando di progettazione per una “Località per le Vacanze” nella Riviera Ligure di Ponente. La maggior parte dei partecipanti portò un modello di abitazione da riprodurre serialmente. Il giovane architetto Mario Galvagni si presentò, viceversa, a mani vuote e con critiche su metodo e richiesta del bando, salvo poi presentare in contropartita l’applicazione della teoria dell’Ecologia della Forma (GestaltEcologia) al suo curioso interlocutore.
L’avventura del Parco Architettonico di Torre del Mare cominciò poco tempo dopo, durò circa sei anni e creò un unicum nel panorama del dopoguerra italiano, con due sole persone al comando, forti idee teoriche, all’epoca inedite, e nel silenzio generalizzato della pubblicistica specializzata. Quest’articolo racconterà come quell’intervento abbia influenzato la carriera dell’architetto, lo sviluppo di quel territorio e quanto sia ancora rilevante in termini di pianificazione.
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During the early Fifties of the XX century, the entrepreneur Pierino Tizzoni launched a call for proposals for a "Holiday Resort" in the Western Ligurian Riviera. Most of the participants brought a house model to be reproduced serially. The young architect Mario Galvagni, vice versa, presented himself empty-handed and with criticisms of the method and request of the tender, only to then advocate for the application of the theory of the Ecology of Form (GestaltEcology) to his curious guest.
The adventure of Torre del Mare Architectural Park began a short time later, lasted about six years and created a unicum in the Italian post-war panorama, with only two people in charge, strong theoretical ideas, unpublished at the time, and in the generalized silence of architectural magazines. This article will decribe how that intervention influenced the architect's career, the development of that territory and how much it is still relevant today in terms of planning.
L’avventura del Parco Architettonico di Torre del Mare cominciò poco tempo dopo, durò circa sei anni e creò un unicum nel panorama del dopoguerra italiano, con due sole persone al comando, forti idee teoriche, all’epoca inedite, e nel silenzio generalizzato della pubblicistica specializzata. Quest’articolo racconterà come quell’intervento abbia influenzato la carriera dell’architetto, lo sviluppo di quel territorio e quanto sia ancora rilevante in termini di pianificazione.
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During the early Fifties of the XX century, the entrepreneur Pierino Tizzoni launched a call for proposals for a "Holiday Resort" in the Western Ligurian Riviera. Most of the participants brought a house model to be reproduced serially. The young architect Mario Galvagni, vice versa, presented himself empty-handed and with criticisms of the method and request of the tender, only to then advocate for the application of the theory of the Ecology of Form (GestaltEcology) to his curious guest.
The adventure of Torre del Mare Architectural Park began a short time later, lasted about six years and created a unicum in the Italian post-war panorama, with only two people in charge, strong theoretical ideas, unpublished at the time, and in the generalized silence of architectural magazines. This article will decribe how that intervention influenced the architect's career, the development of that territory and how much it is still relevant today in terms of planning.
Research Interests:
Questo testo, revisionato, nuovamente redazionato e aggiornato, è stato ripubblicato da: Cronaca e storia di un rimosso cantiere di regime: il mausoleo di Costanzo Ciano a Livorno / Scaroni Federico. // Quaderni dell’Istituto di storia... more
Questo testo, revisionato, nuovamente redazionato e aggiornato, è stato ripubblicato da: Cronaca e storia di un rimosso cantiere di regime: il mausoleo di Costanzo Ciano a Livorno / Scaroni Federico. // Quaderni dell’Istituto di storia dell’architettura, Dipartimento di storia dell’architettura, restauro e conservazione dei beni architettonici. - N.S., 42 (2003), p. 89-95.
Research Interests:
L’approccio giapponese al patrimonio di architettura moderna nazionale si è recentemente spostato da una tiepida indifferenza a un dibattito più articolato circa le possibilità offerte da restauro, recupero e riutilizzo degli edifici... more
L’approccio giapponese al patrimonio di architettura moderna nazionale si è recentemente spostato da una tiepida indifferenza a un dibattito più articolato circa le possibilità offerte da restauro, recupero e riutilizzo degli edifici moderni in decadenza. La diffusione dello studio delle rovine (Haikyo 廃虚), nato inizialmente attraverso media come riviste e libri fotografici, ha ulteriormente arricchito tale dibattito nel paese. La maggior parte dell'interesse giapponese attorno alle rovine è cresciuto a seguito della riscoperta dell'isola abbandonata di Hashima, nota anche come Gunkanjima (Isola Corazzata). La sua forzata e improvvisa evacuazione, avvenuta nel 1974, concesse l'eccezionale opportunità di far giungere a noi un ambiente urbano preservato nella sua interezza, comprensivo di mobili e oggetti personali. Quest’articolo esaminerà l'importanza di Hashima dal punto di vista storico, architettonico e urbanistico, rilevando anche il suo ruolo paradigmatico per la comprensione della storia del Giappone, in termini di sviluppo industriale, evoluzione sociale e sperimentazione tecnologica.
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Recent years have seen Japanese policy on modern architectural heritage passing from an approach of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated discussion on the possibilities offered by full preservation, buildings' renovation and reuse. Spreading of “Ruins (Haikyo_廃虚) Studies”, promoted mostly throughout popular publications like magazines and photo books, has recently enriched such a debate in Japan. Most of the interest around the Ruins Studies sparked after the rediscovery of the abandoned island of Hashima, also commonly known as Gunkanjima, aka Battleship Island. Its sudden evacuation and shutting in 1974 offered the exceptional possibility to have a preserved urban environment in its entirety, comprehensive of furniture and personal belongings left there due to the hasty abandonment. This paper will investigate the importance of Hashima from the historical, architectural and town-planning points of view while also underlining its role in being a paradigm for Japan history in terms of industrial development, social evolution and technological experimentation.
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Recent years have seen Japanese policy on modern architectural heritage passing from an approach of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated discussion on the possibilities offered by full preservation, buildings' renovation and reuse. Spreading of “Ruins (Haikyo_廃虚) Studies”, promoted mostly throughout popular publications like magazines and photo books, has recently enriched such a debate in Japan. Most of the interest around the Ruins Studies sparked after the rediscovery of the abandoned island of Hashima, also commonly known as Gunkanjima, aka Battleship Island. Its sudden evacuation and shutting in 1974 offered the exceptional possibility to have a preserved urban environment in its entirety, comprehensive of furniture and personal belongings left there due to the hasty abandonment. This paper will investigate the importance of Hashima from the historical, architectural and town-planning points of view while also underlining its role in being a paradigm for Japan history in terms of industrial development, social evolution and technological experimentation.
Research Interests:
The prayer space of missionaries in Japan consisted in a first phase of the use of rooms inside private houses or abandoned temples adapted for the purpose; a sec- ond phase saw the construction of buildings based on European standards.... more
The prayer space of missionaries in Japan consisted in a first phase of the use of rooms inside private houses or abandoned temples adapted for the purpose; a sec- ond phase saw the construction of buildings based on European standards. In a last phase, religious premises returned to forms more in keeping with their Japan- ese context, in which rectangular building plans are the most widespread. Because of the temporary nature of these structures and the following religious repression, few remains of these buildings survive; moreover the graphic representations on the folding screens are often unreliable because they do not correspond to contem- porary written descriptions.
Research Interests: History of Japan, History of Japanese architecture, landscape design and urbanism, Namban, Namban Art, Japanese Christianity, and Society of Jesus in Japan (16th-17th century) - First Japanese Embassy to Europe (Tensho shonen shisetsu) Relationships between Portugal and Japan during the Christian century (1549-1650)
There was a time in Japan when economic growth seemed unending, ideas were spreading at incredible pace and urban- natural territories and resources were considered endless and thus fully exploited. That euphoria, rising as a creative... more
There was a time in Japan when economic growth seemed unending, ideas were spreading at incredible pace and urban- natural territories and resources were considered endless and thus fully exploited.
That euphoria, rising as a creative reaction from the radioactive ashes of the nuclear defeat in the Second World War, brought the “children of war” generation to think of a new environment and bring Japan into a brighter future of megalopolises and a renovated human society based on a comparison with the fluid dynamics of biology. Men of their time, in 1960, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Takashi Asada and Noburu Kawazoe, guided by Kenzo Tange and sided by Arata Isozaki created the Metabolist Movement, the Japanese answer to the early post-modernist reactions that brought to the creation of the Team 10. Their ideas and realizations not only deeply influenced Japanese society as a whole but also brought Japanese architecture at the center of the world stage.More than fifty years have passed since those days and Japan is quite a different country: older, richer overall though with the awareness of a poorer future expectancy for the fewer younger generations. The economic bubble has exploded at the peak of Japan 1980s’ hubris and bared the truth of that exciting growth. As a consequence, also the attentiveness for the environment increased as well as nowadays Japanese people know the damages made to their country from decades of territory exploitation.
What has remained of the Metabolist ideas today? How these ideas evolved to be adapted in a drastically mutated society? A new generation of architects has risen from the economical ashes of the bubble. A generation grown in a post- modern age, deprived of great universal solutions to the big tasks but not without ideas. Can we call them the heirs of Metabolism?
That euphoria, rising as a creative reaction from the radioactive ashes of the nuclear defeat in the Second World War, brought the “children of war” generation to think of a new environment and bring Japan into a brighter future of megalopolises and a renovated human society based on a comparison with the fluid dynamics of biology. Men of their time, in 1960, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Takashi Asada and Noburu Kawazoe, guided by Kenzo Tange and sided by Arata Isozaki created the Metabolist Movement, the Japanese answer to the early post-modernist reactions that brought to the creation of the Team 10. Their ideas and realizations not only deeply influenced Japanese society as a whole but also brought Japanese architecture at the center of the world stage.More than fifty years have passed since those days and Japan is quite a different country: older, richer overall though with the awareness of a poorer future expectancy for the fewer younger generations. The economic bubble has exploded at the peak of Japan 1980s’ hubris and bared the truth of that exciting growth. As a consequence, also the attentiveness for the environment increased as well as nowadays Japanese people know the damages made to their country from decades of territory exploitation.
What has remained of the Metabolist ideas today? How these ideas evolved to be adapted in a drastically mutated society? A new generation of architects has risen from the economical ashes of the bubble. A generation grown in a post- modern age, deprived of great universal solutions to the big tasks but not without ideas. Can we call them the heirs of Metabolism?
Research Interests:
Japan still holds the third biggest economy in the world ranking but definitely is not a growing society. General depopulation, fast ageing process and transfer of countryside inhabitants to the big metropolitan areas is a quite common... more
Japan still holds the third biggest economy in the world ranking but definitely is not a growing society.
General depopulation, fast ageing process and transfer of countryside inhabitants to the big metropolitan areas is a quite common process in the former leading societies of the so- called First World. Nevertheless Japanese depopulation progression it is one of the fastest ones in the world and the effects of this process on its rural areas reached a dramatic impact in the last decades while bringing to an extensive abandonment of villages, islands, small towns and agricultural fields.
Others than simply the research of a better life, economic reasons lie upon the exodus of the Japanese younger generations in direction of the three main metropolitan areas Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
Natural and man-made catastrophes, for example, often force people to abandon their houses and settle somewhere else. The recent triple disaster of Tohoku region (Earthquake, Tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdown) brought to a first massive evacuation of the local inhabitants that, after five years, seems to be partially permanent.
General depopulation, fast ageing process and transfer of countryside inhabitants to the big metropolitan areas is a quite common process in the former leading societies of the so- called First World. Nevertheless Japanese depopulation progression it is one of the fastest ones in the world and the effects of this process on its rural areas reached a dramatic impact in the last decades while bringing to an extensive abandonment of villages, islands, small towns and agricultural fields.
Others than simply the research of a better life, economic reasons lie upon the exodus of the Japanese younger generations in direction of the three main metropolitan areas Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
Natural and man-made catastrophes, for example, often force people to abandon their houses and settle somewhere else. The recent triple disaster of Tohoku region (Earthquake, Tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdown) brought to a first massive evacuation of the local inhabitants that, after five years, seems to be partially permanent.
Research Interests:
When we think about North Italian water culture we usually think about the history of Venice and its extraordinary and peculiar urban evolution. Due to such uniqueness Venice is actually too exceptional to be compared with the evolution... more
When we think about North Italian water culture we usually think about the history of Venice and its extraordinary and peculiar urban evolution. Due to such uniqueness Venice is actually too exceptional to be compared with the evolution of the rest of Padana and Veneto plains. Hence, this article will focus on the general history of other cities through the depiction of urban-wa- ter devices created by the populations to improve their life and economy.
Most importantly, it will recall how these devices influenced in similar way the development of the different cities also from the cultural point of view, creating de facto a common North Italian culture based on water use and water representation.
Most importantly, it will recall how these devices influenced in similar way the development of the different cities also from the cultural point of view, creating de facto a common North Italian culture based on water use and water representation.
Research Interests:
There is a strange asymmetry with which the Italian and Japanese architectural avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s faced the theme of the ruin, the residue and caducity and eternity implications that this element symbolizes at the same... more
There is a strange asymmetry with which the Italian and Japanese architectural avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s faced the theme of the ruin, the residue and caducity and eternity implications that this element symbolizes at the same time. Italy is the country that made a large part of its architectural and aesthetic fortune to the familiarity, the conservation and the coexistence with ancient and majestic ruins.
Japan is, on the other hand, a place where the concept of ruin assumes historically a mainly symbolic meaning, being the voluntary or casual abandoned artifacts preservation completely marginal in the history of the archipelago. It is then interesting and logical at the same time to note how Italians avant-garde dealt with this issue in a more free way, paradoxically without the strongest implications that this subject could lead and actually had led in the past.
Metabolists and contemporary Japanese architects, on the contrary, started with the immediate post-war period ruins to draw the future society they envisaged and, even in the following years of the movement golden age, the ruins theme often resurfaced, especially in Isozaki’s work.
Japan is, on the other hand, a place where the concept of ruin assumes historically a mainly symbolic meaning, being the voluntary or casual abandoned artifacts preservation completely marginal in the history of the archipelago. It is then interesting and logical at the same time to note how Italians avant-garde dealt with this issue in a more free way, paradoxically without the strongest implications that this subject could lead and actually had led in the past.
Metabolists and contemporary Japanese architects, on the contrary, started with the immediate post-war period ruins to draw the future society they envisaged and, even in the following years of the movement golden age, the ruins theme often resurfaced, especially in Isozaki’s work.
Research Interests:
L’architettura ha sempre vissuto della doppia anima della rappresentazione slegata dalla realizzazione. Un’opera di architettura può vivere svincolata dalla materia con cui è concepita? Può bastare la sua rappresentazione a renderla... more
L’architettura ha sempre vissuto della doppia anima della rappresentazione slegata dalla realizzazione. Un’opera di architettura può vivere svincolata dalla materia con cui è concepita? Può bastare la sua rappresentazione a renderla immortale all'infuori dalla sua fattibilità?
Piranesi, Boullè e Sant’Elia ci raccontano di opere incredibili totalmente slegate da un contesto di fattibilità sia reale che teorica.
La rappresentazione dovrebbe portare un’idea a essere realizzabile nelle sue linee guida. Tuttavia se questo è facilmente comprensibile nel campo delle altre arti, più labile diventa nel caso dell’architettura. In uno schema ipotetico che pone la rappresentazione come media del piano estetico e, agli estremi di questo, il visibile e l’invisibile - concepito e concepibile, le altre arti si districano chiaramente in tale campo, mentre l’architettura si sviluppa in maniera più complessa divenendo “creazione” già nel suo stadio progettuale. L’architettura vive quindi di diversi livelli di visibilità e il progetto può essere non meno vero della sua versione realizzata.
Se però l’architettura ottiene già nel suo stadio progettuale la dignità di rappresentazione definitiva, cosa la distingue realmente dalle altre arti?
Un modello tridimensionale o un plastico sono meno sculture di un nudo di Prassitele? Uno schizzo di Zaha Hadid è meno dipinto di un Picasso? Un allestimento scenografico, pur nella sua effimerità, è meno opera d’arte di una performance d’avanguardia?
I sistemi di rappresentazione nascono in un ambito dialettico tra il significato dell’opera con il suo contenitore e il significante con il suo contenuto. La rappresentazione oggi è veramente così importante per il significante di un’opera tanto da sostituirsi al suo significato? Siamo arrivati al punto di considerare la rappresentazione come un punto di arrivo piuttosto che un mezzo? E’ ormai così vicina la rappresentazione dell’architettura all’essere assimilabile a una delle altre arti maggiori?
Piranesi, Boullè e Sant’Elia ci raccontano di opere incredibili totalmente slegate da un contesto di fattibilità sia reale che teorica.
La rappresentazione dovrebbe portare un’idea a essere realizzabile nelle sue linee guida. Tuttavia se questo è facilmente comprensibile nel campo delle altre arti, più labile diventa nel caso dell’architettura. In uno schema ipotetico che pone la rappresentazione come media del piano estetico e, agli estremi di questo, il visibile e l’invisibile - concepito e concepibile, le altre arti si districano chiaramente in tale campo, mentre l’architettura si sviluppa in maniera più complessa divenendo “creazione” già nel suo stadio progettuale. L’architettura vive quindi di diversi livelli di visibilità e il progetto può essere non meno vero della sua versione realizzata.
Se però l’architettura ottiene già nel suo stadio progettuale la dignità di rappresentazione definitiva, cosa la distingue realmente dalle altre arti?
Un modello tridimensionale o un plastico sono meno sculture di un nudo di Prassitele? Uno schizzo di Zaha Hadid è meno dipinto di un Picasso? Un allestimento scenografico, pur nella sua effimerità, è meno opera d’arte di una performance d’avanguardia?
I sistemi di rappresentazione nascono in un ambito dialettico tra il significato dell’opera con il suo contenitore e il significante con il suo contenuto. La rappresentazione oggi è veramente così importante per il significante di un’opera tanto da sostituirsi al suo significato? Siamo arrivati al punto di considerare la rappresentazione come un punto di arrivo piuttosto che un mezzo? E’ ormai così vicina la rappresentazione dell’architettura all’essere assimilabile a una delle altre arti maggiori?
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Recent years have seen Japanese policy on modern architectural heritage preservation passing from an approach of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by full... more
Recent years have seen Japanese policy on modern architectural heritage preservation passing from an approach of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by full preservation, buildings' renovation and reuse.
Spreading of Ruins (Haikyo_廃虚) Studies, promoted mostly throughout popular publications like magazines and photo books, has recently enriched the debate on preservation in Japan.
This paper, takes the move from the recent history of rediscovery of the abandoned island of Hashima (also commonly called Gunkanjima), and investigates this phenomenon pointing out the possible evolutions in terms of preservation of modern ruins heritage, also bringing other examples of popular Haikyo relived complexes and the experiences studied in the same field in other countries with a similar deindustrialization and postmodern issue.
A further consideration will underline the symbolic reappropriation of those missing parts of shared urban memory as early symptoms of a possible change in Japan attitude toward its modern architectural heritage. Hence, this paper will suggest that today popular interest for Haikyo, is a possible contemporary Japanese renewal of the historical Romantic Grand Tour, a new process able to help to connect Japanese society with its more recent and abandoned history.
Spreading of Ruins (Haikyo_廃虚) Studies, promoted mostly throughout popular publications like magazines and photo books, has recently enriched the debate on preservation in Japan.
This paper, takes the move from the recent history of rediscovery of the abandoned island of Hashima (also commonly called Gunkanjima), and investigates this phenomenon pointing out the possible evolutions in terms of preservation of modern ruins heritage, also bringing other examples of popular Haikyo relived complexes and the experiences studied in the same field in other countries with a similar deindustrialization and postmodern issue.
A further consideration will underline the symbolic reappropriation of those missing parts of shared urban memory as early symptoms of a possible change in Japan attitude toward its modern architectural heritage. Hence, this paper will suggest that today popular interest for Haikyo, is a possible contemporary Japanese renewal of the historical Romantic Grand Tour, a new process able to help to connect Japanese society with its more recent and abandoned history.
Research Interests:
Early Spring 1974, Kyushu region, Japan. The entire population of Hashima Island, west of Nagasaki, was forcedly transferred in the mainland by Mitsubishi, the company owner of the island. Just few years before, Hashima was the most... more
Early Spring 1974, Kyushu region, Japan. The entire population of Hashima Island, west of Nagasaki, was forcedly transferred in the mainland by Mitsubishi, the company owner of the island. Just few years before, Hashima was the most densely populated area in the world. After its abandonment, became famous as Gunkanjima (Battleship island) due to its characteristic skyline that shows from far its ruining buildings.
Early Spring 2011, Tohoku region. The aftermath of the terrible destructive sequence massive earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown leaves part of Fukushima prefecture almost emptied of their inhabitants. Cities like Namie, Futaba, Okuma, Tomioka are now ghost towns and, due to the local economic crisis, others will follow the same destiny.
Early Spring 2014, Shikoku region. The rural village of Nagoro is mostly populated by hundreds of dolls, which have gradually replaced human beings. Nagoro suffered for the national agriculture economic decline and in a short time its inhabitants left or died. These dolls are the most symbolic witnesses of the ageing of Japan thus can give us a hint of the possible future of a society that is able to amuse itself to death.
Gunkanjima, Fukushima, Nagoro are three different examples, among hundreds, of abandoned settlements in Japan. Their mostly forced depopulation gradually modified the economic and social structure of a country in which many areas every year gradually come back to nature. Nature that witnesses the physical ruins produced by an advanced and rich society; ruins that showed up for the first time in so massive number in a country in which historical impermanence forced buildings to have a very short life.
This paper will describe the possible physical destiny of those ruins and furthermore, the relationship that future Japanese people will establish with them from a social and cultural point of view.
Early Spring 2011, Tohoku region. The aftermath of the terrible destructive sequence massive earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown leaves part of Fukushima prefecture almost emptied of their inhabitants. Cities like Namie, Futaba, Okuma, Tomioka are now ghost towns and, due to the local economic crisis, others will follow the same destiny.
Early Spring 2014, Shikoku region. The rural village of Nagoro is mostly populated by hundreds of dolls, which have gradually replaced human beings. Nagoro suffered for the national agriculture economic decline and in a short time its inhabitants left or died. These dolls are the most symbolic witnesses of the ageing of Japan thus can give us a hint of the possible future of a society that is able to amuse itself to death.
Gunkanjima, Fukushima, Nagoro are three different examples, among hundreds, of abandoned settlements in Japan. Their mostly forced depopulation gradually modified the economic and social structure of a country in which many areas every year gradually come back to nature. Nature that witnesses the physical ruins produced by an advanced and rich society; ruins that showed up for the first time in so massive number in a country in which historical impermanence forced buildings to have a very short life.
This paper will describe the possible physical destiny of those ruins and furthermore, the relationship that future Japanese people will establish with them from a social and cultural point of view.
Research Interests:
Recent years have seen Japan passing from a policy of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by buildings' renovation and reuse. This debate, still in full bloom, has... more
Recent years have seen Japan passing from a policy of continuous destruction/substitution of its patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by buildings' renovation and reuse. This debate, still in full bloom, has been recently enriched by the Haikyo studies (exploration of urban ruins) that are spreading, becoming massive points of discussion, mostly in non-academic publications. This research analyzes this phenomenon, trying to point out Japanese peculiarities. Japanese urban ruins exploration is part of a larger revolution in the change of approach in the urban context. A comparison with Western historic attitudes focuses on different human perceptions of architectural space and on why Japanese culture approached it in a vastly different way. This study not only underlines the symbolic reappropriation of those missing parts of shared urban memory, but it also highlights the symptoms of a strong change in Japanese people's attitudes toward modern architectural heritage. One of the main results of the comparison is the analysis of the influence that the Haikyo study has on Japanese society as a whole and in particular on the preservation and renovation debate. This understanding will lead to the elaboration of possible future scenarios on urban redevelopment.
Research Interests:
Architectural Modern Movement of the Early XX century saw the birth of an Italian debate much later than the rest of northern Europe. Such a debate was strongly influenced by the artistic and political situation of the country, between... more
Architectural Modern Movement of the Early XX century saw the birth of an Italian debate much later than the rest of northern Europe. Such a debate was strongly influenced by the artistic and political situation of the country, between the winners of the First World War but also center of the growing Fascist Movement that would have take the power in most of Europe just few years later.
A contraposition between the styles of young and older generations of architects brought to an enormous debate in order to chose what would have been the official Fascist Modern Architecture ideal, a debate brought on the architectural reviews Casabella, Domus, l’Architettura and expressed through the many design competitions organized in the country between the 20’s and the 30’s.
Some regarding realizations of this debate saw the two souls of Italian Architecture (Modernist and Classicist) gradually getting more permeable to each other and finally creating a sort of unique style, under formal control of Marcello Piacentini, architectural demiurge of the Regime. This style, sometimes called Mediterranean, amalgamated elements of Classical, Modernist, Vernacular architectures and saw the most important realizations with the University Campus and the E42 area both in Rome.
Starting from early ‘30s and following the conquering of Ethiopia in 1936, Fascist Regime started an enormous campaign of remodeling of the Empire territory, with the foundations of cities, towns and villages in Italy, East and North Africa, Dodecanese islands and Albania.
Urban plans, residential, sports and religious compounds, buildings representing the Fascist Power were realized throughout the whole Empire defining an official style of architecture that was also open to the local influences.
Tirana, as well as all the main cities along Italian controlled territory, was at the center of a big innovation plan, with the recreation of its urban center and the realization of important buildings, still visible and used today. So, what does remain today of such a heritage?
The lecture, 45 min length, will provide the audience with information regarding the historical, artistic and political context of birth of Novecento Modern Architecture movement and its reflections on the local areas of Italian influence.
1) Historical and Artistic context of the birth of the modern movement in Totalitarian countries.
2) Evolution of Architecture in the Italian style context of early 20th century.
3) University campus and the E42 as first and final stages of the Novecento
movement in Italy.
4) Reflections of the above evolution on the colonies founded in Italy and
abroad. Some topical examples.
5) Fascist Architecture in Tirana.
A contraposition between the styles of young and older generations of architects brought to an enormous debate in order to chose what would have been the official Fascist Modern Architecture ideal, a debate brought on the architectural reviews Casabella, Domus, l’Architettura and expressed through the many design competitions organized in the country between the 20’s and the 30’s.
Some regarding realizations of this debate saw the two souls of Italian Architecture (Modernist and Classicist) gradually getting more permeable to each other and finally creating a sort of unique style, under formal control of Marcello Piacentini, architectural demiurge of the Regime. This style, sometimes called Mediterranean, amalgamated elements of Classical, Modernist, Vernacular architectures and saw the most important realizations with the University Campus and the E42 area both in Rome.
Starting from early ‘30s and following the conquering of Ethiopia in 1936, Fascist Regime started an enormous campaign of remodeling of the Empire territory, with the foundations of cities, towns and villages in Italy, East and North Africa, Dodecanese islands and Albania.
Urban plans, residential, sports and religious compounds, buildings representing the Fascist Power were realized throughout the whole Empire defining an official style of architecture that was also open to the local influences.
Tirana, as well as all the main cities along Italian controlled territory, was at the center of a big innovation plan, with the recreation of its urban center and the realization of important buildings, still visible and used today. So, what does remain today of such a heritage?
The lecture, 45 min length, will provide the audience with information regarding the historical, artistic and political context of birth of Novecento Modern Architecture movement and its reflections on the local areas of Italian influence.
1) Historical and Artistic context of the birth of the modern movement in Totalitarian countries.
2) Evolution of Architecture in the Italian style context of early 20th century.
3) University campus and the E42 as first and final stages of the Novecento
movement in Italy.
4) Reflections of the above evolution on the colonies founded in Italy and
abroad. Some topical examples.
5) Fascist Architecture in Tirana.
Research Interests:
There is no strict definition for the architectural concept of Out of scale. Nevertheless, European forma mentis is fed by centuries of architectonical orders and proportion studies. For this reason, most of Europeans pretend to be able... more
There is no strict definition for the architectural concept of Out of scale. Nevertheless, European forma mentis is fed by centuries of architectonical orders and proportion studies. For this reason, most of Europeans pretend to be able to perceive the Out of Scale manifestation. Can a perception on built environment be the same for different populations and cultures?
The research intends to investigate this issue, thru the comparison with a different culture and bringing examples from urban sociology studies, newspapers and interviews. Given its evolution, so different from European one, Japanese architectural culture has been chosen as comparison tool, since born under a philosophic system, Buddhist-Shinto so different from Greek-Latin philosophy and Judeo-Christian religion.
Main result is the discovery of a contemporary Japanese lack of proportion sense, at least as perceived in the West. Japan evolution brought to the creation of a peculiar two-dimensional perception system, almost lost since the modernity introduction. This loss has partially been possible due to lack of established proportions theory.
Looking at the vibrant contemporary Japanese architecture, it seems that this lack of theory offered designers great freedom in their urban context approach, thus demonstrating that scale perception can really be different for different cultures.
The research intends to investigate this issue, thru the comparison with a different culture and bringing examples from urban sociology studies, newspapers and interviews. Given its evolution, so different from European one, Japanese architectural culture has been chosen as comparison tool, since born under a philosophic system, Buddhist-Shinto so different from Greek-Latin philosophy and Judeo-Christian religion.
Main result is the discovery of a contemporary Japanese lack of proportion sense, at least as perceived in the West. Japan evolution brought to the creation of a peculiar two-dimensional perception system, almost lost since the modernity introduction. This loss has partially been possible due to lack of established proportions theory.
Looking at the vibrant contemporary Japanese architecture, it seems that this lack of theory offered designers great freedom in their urban context approach, thus demonstrating that scale perception can really be different for different cultures.
Research Interests:
L’architettura ha sempre vissuto della doppia anima della rappresentazione slegata dalla realizzazione. Un’opera di architettura può vivere svincolata dalla materia con cui è concepita? Può bastare la sua rappresentazione a renderla... more
L’architettura ha sempre vissuto della doppia anima della rappresentazione slegata dalla realizzazione. Un’opera di architettura può vivere svincolata dalla materia con cui è concepita? Può bastare la sua rappresentazione a renderla immortale all'infuori dalla sua fattibilità?
Piranesi, Boullè e Sant’Elia ci raccontano di opere incredibili totalmente slegate da un contesto di fattibilità sia reale che teorica.
La rappresentazione dovrebbe portare un’idea a essere realizzabile nelle sue linee guida. Tuttavia se questo è facilmente comprensibile nel campo delle altre arti, più labile diventa nel caso dell’architettura. In uno schema ipotetico che pone la rappresentazione come media del piano estetico e, agli estremi di questo, il visibile e l’invisibile - concepito e concepibile, le altre arti si districano chiaramente in tale campo, mentre l’architettura si sviluppa in maniera più complessa divenendo “creazione” già nel suo stadio progettuale. L’architettura vive quindi di diversi livelli di visibilità e il progetto può essere non meno vero della sua versione realizzata.
Se però l’architettura ottiene già nel suo stadio progettuale la dignità di rappresentazione definitiva, cosa la distingue realmente dalle altre arti?
Un modello tridimensionale o un plastico sono meno sculture di un nudo di Prassitele? Uno schizzo di Zaha Hadid è meno dipinto di un Picasso? Un allestimento scenografico, pur nella sua effimerità, è meno opera d’arte di una performance d’avanguardia?
I sistemi di rappresentazione nascono in un ambito dialettico tra il significato dell’opera con il suo contenitore e il significante con il suo contenuto. La rappresentazione oggi è veramente così importante per il significante di un’opera tanto da sostituirsi al suo significato? Siamo arrivati al punto di considerare la rappresentazione come un punto di arrivo piuttosto che un mezzo? E’ ormai così vicina la rappresentazione dell’architettura all’essere assimilabile a una delle altre arti maggiori?
Piranesi, Boullè e Sant’Elia ci raccontano di opere incredibili totalmente slegate da un contesto di fattibilità sia reale che teorica.
La rappresentazione dovrebbe portare un’idea a essere realizzabile nelle sue linee guida. Tuttavia se questo è facilmente comprensibile nel campo delle altre arti, più labile diventa nel caso dell’architettura. In uno schema ipotetico che pone la rappresentazione come media del piano estetico e, agli estremi di questo, il visibile e l’invisibile - concepito e concepibile, le altre arti si districano chiaramente in tale campo, mentre l’architettura si sviluppa in maniera più complessa divenendo “creazione” già nel suo stadio progettuale. L’architettura vive quindi di diversi livelli di visibilità e il progetto può essere non meno vero della sua versione realizzata.
Se però l’architettura ottiene già nel suo stadio progettuale la dignità di rappresentazione definitiva, cosa la distingue realmente dalle altre arti?
Un modello tridimensionale o un plastico sono meno sculture di un nudo di Prassitele? Uno schizzo di Zaha Hadid è meno dipinto di un Picasso? Un allestimento scenografico, pur nella sua effimerità, è meno opera d’arte di una performance d’avanguardia?
I sistemi di rappresentazione nascono in un ambito dialettico tra il significato dell’opera con il suo contenitore e il significante con il suo contenuto. La rappresentazione oggi è veramente così importante per il significante di un’opera tanto da sostituirsi al suo significato? Siamo arrivati al punto di considerare la rappresentazione come un punto di arrivo piuttosto che un mezzo? E’ ormai così vicina la rappresentazione dell’architettura all’essere assimilabile a una delle altre arti maggiori?
Research Interests:
Modern ruins are everywhere, following us in our daily walks through the cities, and the more modern is the city, the stronger are the feelings given by those relicts. They can fiercely stand for years and disappear from one day to... more
Modern ruins are everywhere, following us in our daily walks through the cities, and the more modern is the city, the stronger are the feelings given by those relicts. They can fiercely stand for years and disappear from one day to another, though their presence is never neutral. This impermanence is stronger in a land like Japan, where a Shinto-Buddhist wooden culture still permeates the economical and architectural urban debate.
Japanese modern ruins have recently become a strong research subject due to the latest preservation and renovation of Modern Architecture debate. Recent years have seen Japan passing from a policy of continuous destruction and substitution of its architecture patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by the reuse of buildings even for different purposes. This kind of debate, born only after the failing of the 80’s bubble economy, is still in its full bloom with the particular characteristic, in contraposition with what is happening in Western Countries, of the almost total theoretical contribution absence. Every single example carried on in last years brings a new brick in the construction of a full patrimony of experiences, still without mostly stating any theoretical issue except for historical studies of Prof. Hiroyuki Suzuki. For this reason, Japan is nowadays one of the most interesting experimentation fields for new possibilities in the consolidated urban texture Reconnection and Reappropriation.
Anyway physical reuse and reconversion of the built architecture is not the only recent topic brought on in Japanese contemporary Renovation debate. Haikyo (廃虚, “abandoned place” in Japanese language) is basically the exploration of urban ruins, but in Japan this kind of research has become massive matter of discussion with many publications and entire filled up shelves in common bookshops. Since the “rediscovering” of the abandoned mining island Hashima (or Gunkanjima, near Nagasaki) in late Nineties, Japanese scholars started to explore deeply the territory in search for lost parts of their urban history. The meaning of this research is not only the symbolic reappropriation of those missing parts of the shared urban memory but also the symptom of a strong change in Japanese people mind attitude respect to their modern architectural heritage.
Not by chance the two issues of this debate, the Modern Architecture Renovation and the Haikyo, found a common field in the reappropriation of abandoned Metabolism buildings, experimental examples for a Japanese way to the city Re-use.
Japanese modern ruins have recently become a strong research subject due to the latest preservation and renovation of Modern Architecture debate. Recent years have seen Japan passing from a policy of continuous destruction and substitution of its architecture patrimony to a more articulated debate on the possibilities offered by the reuse of buildings even for different purposes. This kind of debate, born only after the failing of the 80’s bubble economy, is still in its full bloom with the particular characteristic, in contraposition with what is happening in Western Countries, of the almost total theoretical contribution absence. Every single example carried on in last years brings a new brick in the construction of a full patrimony of experiences, still without mostly stating any theoretical issue except for historical studies of Prof. Hiroyuki Suzuki. For this reason, Japan is nowadays one of the most interesting experimentation fields for new possibilities in the consolidated urban texture Reconnection and Reappropriation.
Anyway physical reuse and reconversion of the built architecture is not the only recent topic brought on in Japanese contemporary Renovation debate. Haikyo (廃虚, “abandoned place” in Japanese language) is basically the exploration of urban ruins, but in Japan this kind of research has become massive matter of discussion with many publications and entire filled up shelves in common bookshops. Since the “rediscovering” of the abandoned mining island Hashima (or Gunkanjima, near Nagasaki) in late Nineties, Japanese scholars started to explore deeply the territory in search for lost parts of their urban history. The meaning of this research is not only the symbolic reappropriation of those missing parts of the shared urban memory but also the symptom of a strong change in Japanese people mind attitude respect to their modern architectural heritage.
Not by chance the two issues of this debate, the Modern Architecture Renovation and the Haikyo, found a common field in the reappropriation of abandoned Metabolism buildings, experimental examples for a Japanese way to the city Re-use.
Research Interests:
Contents: Introduction In the historic period object of this short intervention Italy and Japan developed in a total separated and different way. Though both countries, similar for geomorphological and hydrogeological conformation,... more
Contents:
Introduction
In the historic period object of this short intervention Italy and Japan developed in a total separated and different way. Though both countries, similar for geomorphological and hydrogeological conformation, were living a totally different political situation, artistry played an important role in the representation of urban water system in Japan as well as in Italy. This short discourse will try to underline how the artists of this period felt the importance of water as a symbol of life and development and which differences and similarities relied in the two different situations.
1. Western artistry and Japan, first approaches
How Western artistry influenced Japanese one in the late 16th Cent and the results in terms of realistic representation of water urban system. Analysis on the introduction of perspective and sfumato techniques and how Japanese artists absorbed the innovations and developed the themes of urban water representation using the new instruments.
2. Italy and Japan, a short comparison on urban water system
This section will offer a short resume on political and hydro morphological situation in Japan and Italy during Edo and Post-Renaissance period. A brief examination will follow regarding engineering technologies adopted for the control and the use of waterpower in the examined centuries and how these technologies were improving everyday life in main urban centers.
3. A comparison on urban water system as depicted in artistry
This section of the discussion will focus on how the artists in both Japan and Italy were representing everyday life related to water technologies, with their own peculiar artistic instruments. It will be underlined the importance of urban water system in Ukiyo-e artistry as well as in Post-Renaissance artistry, analyzing waterways, locks and watermills in everyday life as depicted by Edo period Japanese artists and by local Italian artists in Lombardy and Veneto regions. For a better explanation, a compared analysis on similar themes will be shown bringing as examples city views of Milan as found in several paintings and a selection of Ukiyo-e prints, like Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
4. Two study cases: low town work life and pleasure crusades
In this section the analysis will deepen the comparison on two different study-cases. The first one is the representation of the urban harbors in Edo canals (Kashi) and Milan Inner Moat (Sciostre). The similarities between those two storage systems are subject of many paintings and prints giving us a vivid description of the respective economies and daily life styles. As Italian and Japanese lower classes were sharing a common storage system, upper classes and nobles were sharing another tradition with the use of crusades and dinners on pleasure crafts such as the Yakatabune in Edo period and the Burchielli in Veneto area. Both these boats, often depicted by local artists, were designed specifically to offer their passengers a unique experience of water enjoinment.
Conclusion
The aim of the compared analysis is to bring attention on how artistry felt the importance of describing water as an instrument of richness and how it improved urban development in a similar way in the two countries. The importance of such comparison is more important due to the limited contacts Italy and Japan shared in the period of analysis.
Introduction
In the historic period object of this short intervention Italy and Japan developed in a total separated and different way. Though both countries, similar for geomorphological and hydrogeological conformation, were living a totally different political situation, artistry played an important role in the representation of urban water system in Japan as well as in Italy. This short discourse will try to underline how the artists of this period felt the importance of water as a symbol of life and development and which differences and similarities relied in the two different situations.
1. Western artistry and Japan, first approaches
How Western artistry influenced Japanese one in the late 16th Cent and the results in terms of realistic representation of water urban system. Analysis on the introduction of perspective and sfumato techniques and how Japanese artists absorbed the innovations and developed the themes of urban water representation using the new instruments.
2. Italy and Japan, a short comparison on urban water system
This section will offer a short resume on political and hydro morphological situation in Japan and Italy during Edo and Post-Renaissance period. A brief examination will follow regarding engineering technologies adopted for the control and the use of waterpower in the examined centuries and how these technologies were improving everyday life in main urban centers.
3. A comparison on urban water system as depicted in artistry
This section of the discussion will focus on how the artists in both Japan and Italy were representing everyday life related to water technologies, with their own peculiar artistic instruments. It will be underlined the importance of urban water system in Ukiyo-e artistry as well as in Post-Renaissance artistry, analyzing waterways, locks and watermills in everyday life as depicted by Edo period Japanese artists and by local Italian artists in Lombardy and Veneto regions. For a better explanation, a compared analysis on similar themes will be shown bringing as examples city views of Milan as found in several paintings and a selection of Ukiyo-e prints, like Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
4. Two study cases: low town work life and pleasure crusades
In this section the analysis will deepen the comparison on two different study-cases. The first one is the representation of the urban harbors in Edo canals (Kashi) and Milan Inner Moat (Sciostre). The similarities between those two storage systems are subject of many paintings and prints giving us a vivid description of the respective economies and daily life styles. As Italian and Japanese lower classes were sharing a common storage system, upper classes and nobles were sharing another tradition with the use of crusades and dinners on pleasure crafts such as the Yakatabune in Edo period and the Burchielli in Veneto area. Both these boats, often depicted by local artists, were designed specifically to offer their passengers a unique experience of water enjoinment.
Conclusion
The aim of the compared analysis is to bring attention on how artistry felt the importance of describing water as an instrument of richness and how it improved urban development in a similar way in the two countries. The importance of such comparison is more important due to the limited contacts Italy and Japan shared in the period of analysis.
Research Interests:
L’intervento partirà dall’esame del principio di tutela dei beni culturali come entità storiche d’importanza, affermatosi in Giappone in maniera lenta e frammentaria, e delle sue conseguenze sul recupero del moderno a Tokyo. Tramite... more
L’intervento partirà dall’esame del principio di tutela dei beni culturali come entità storiche d’importanza, affermatosi in Giappone in maniera lenta e frammentaria, e delle sue conseguenze sul recupero del moderno a Tokyo. Tramite rimandi alle norme più antiche, a partire dal periodo Meiji, si metteranno in evidenza le innovazioni gradualmente introdotte a seguito del secondo conflitto mondiale con la necessità di ricostruire il tessuto urbano devastato dai bombardamenti, notando come, dalla legge del 1975 sul primo elenco degli edifici storici da conservare ad oggi, la situazione legislativa sia costantemente migliorata, pur se purtroppo non sempre seguita dalla realtà della trasformazione urbana.
Con l’aiuto, infine, di esempi concreti, saranno presentate alcune delle criticità emerse nel dibattito degli ultimi anni. In particolare saranno toccati i problemi:
a. della conservazione dell’architettura moderna come alibi per successivi sviluppi di speculazione edilizia in aree di pregio (casi in cui solo una parte di un edificio viene conservata, con addizioni posticce e spesso fuori scala; il fatto che il centro di Tokyo continui a perdere alcuni ambiti storici caratteristici con conseguente uniformazione del paesaggio urbano; il fatto che sia molto spesso difficile mantenere l’autenticità dell’originale per probabile mancanza di esperienza nel campo, anche con interventi di restauro integrale; come esempio estremo, il problema dell’autenticità degli edifici storici smontati e ricostruiti nei parchi di architettura a tema);
b. delle ricostruzioni integrali di edifici per i quali sia andata perduta ogni tipo di documentazione;
c. dell’opinione pubblica giapponese, tuttora largamente indifferente alla questione della conservazione di edifici storici;
d. del moderno giapponese considerato talvolta mera copia del suo contemporaneo europeo e quindi non portatore di valori storici evolutivi.
Con l’aiuto, infine, di esempi concreti, saranno presentate alcune delle criticità emerse nel dibattito degli ultimi anni. In particolare saranno toccati i problemi:
a. della conservazione dell’architettura moderna come alibi per successivi sviluppi di speculazione edilizia in aree di pregio (casi in cui solo una parte di un edificio viene conservata, con addizioni posticce e spesso fuori scala; il fatto che il centro di Tokyo continui a perdere alcuni ambiti storici caratteristici con conseguente uniformazione del paesaggio urbano; il fatto che sia molto spesso difficile mantenere l’autenticità dell’originale per probabile mancanza di esperienza nel campo, anche con interventi di restauro integrale; come esempio estremo, il problema dell’autenticità degli edifici storici smontati e ricostruiti nei parchi di architettura a tema);
b. delle ricostruzioni integrali di edifici per i quali sia andata perduta ogni tipo di documentazione;
c. dell’opinione pubblica giapponese, tuttora largamente indifferente alla questione della conservazione di edifici storici;
d. del moderno giapponese considerato talvolta mera copia del suo contemporaneo europeo e quindi non portatore di valori storici evolutivi.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Invisible strings bind two countries as di- verse and as far away as Italy and Japan. Those strings are made of creativity, inno- vation, respect and sometimes criticism of history and tradition. One of these invisible strings is... more
Invisible strings bind two countries as di- verse and as far away as Italy and Japan. Those strings are made of creativity, inno- vation, respect and sometimes criticism of history and tradition. One of these invisible strings is represented by architecture. Both countries have been able to be at the cen- ter of great revolutions and at the same time decided to ignore this capacity to create and innovate.
150 years have passed since the two coun- tries started their relationships and just more than 50 since they were among the leaders of what has been the last global avant-garde movement in architecture with the Japanese Metabolists and the Italian Radicals. 50 years ago the two countries were in full demo- graphic, economic and cultural expansion, and those avant-gardes well-represented the vibrant seeds of their architectural pro- posals. In a curious parallel, 50 years after Italy and Japan live similar cultural and eco- nomic conditions and a new generation of architects deals with the timeless themes of living and design.
150 years have passed since the two coun- tries started their relationships and just more than 50 since they were among the leaders of what has been the last global avant-garde movement in architecture with the Japanese Metabolists and the Italian Radicals. 50 years ago the two countries were in full demo- graphic, economic and cultural expansion, and those avant-gardes well-represented the vibrant seeds of their architectural pro- posals. In a curious parallel, 50 years after Italy and Japan live similar cultural and eco- nomic conditions and a new generation of architects deals with the timeless themes of living and design.
Research Interests:
Interview given for the Exhibition "Invisible Architecture", held in Rome between January and March 2017 in Museo Bilotti, Villa Borghese.
Research Interests:
Exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight. Frank Gehry: I have an Idea. Reviewed for Domus-web
Research Interests:
Death and Rebirth as seen from daily walks in Tokyo.
Research Interests:
Exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight. Measuring. This much, That much, How much? Reviewed for Domus-web
Research Interests:
Impressions on Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011.
Research Interests:
Unlimited expansion is an economic concept that found a merciless and borderless application in almost all areas of contemporary human evolution. Present-day economic decline, combined with an ecological crisis creeping for decades, shows... more
Unlimited expansion is an economic concept that found a merciless and borderless application in almost all areas of contemporary human evolution. Present-day economic decline, combined with an ecological crisis creeping for decades, shows us how our territories are not able to withstand a development model based on steady growth for too long. Rusting industrial districts lay abandoned, only partially reused by urban explorers, artists and wanderers.
The Western World looks at its dispersed and scattered built environment, construction complexes designed for a never-ending growth of richness. Wealth is now finished but the territory remains violated, sometimes contaminated with a model of development that has had its day. Every Western country has its problems, skeletons in the closet and the scale of unsuccessful interventions often remains out of the context that would accommodate them.
Renovation is now a long time accepted keyword in contemporary design: Urban Renewal, Renovation of Modern Movement architecture, Renovation of Industrial Archeology and Renovation of abandoned sites.
Renovation is a design process as important from conceptual and philosophical point of view, as more elitist and still not very effective in its real intent of land transformation, urban and otherwise.
Recovery of our territory still does not hold up compared to its continuous consumption, consumption still dictated by a misguided search for prosperity.
Amount and size of abandoned scale excesses produce an Eco- systemic problem just because of their mere existence. The strong land use also bring into excessive consumption of non-renewable resources. Everything that’s larger and dispersed is hardly sustainable compared to what is more compact. Historical centers of Europe cities have lived and prospered in their condensed expansion, an urban scheme that allowed saving of resources despite ancient technologies. It is not a paradox that many of these technologies, often decidedly low-tech, are reused today in the redesign of these abandoned areas.
Factories, mines, barracks, large open spaces are today offered for subdivisions. Today there’s demand for a restatement of scale that takes into account the changed urban needs; a conversion of scale as a strong change in design; a true reversal of a trend that has often dominated the sizing towards a gigantism hungry for new resources. Today, many instances are mutating and the project scale is redesigned to a new more sustainable use, even at cost of a reallocation of resources, built and in ruins.
The goal today is to focus on this scale built revitalization, rethinking the whole Western model of development from within.
The Western World looks at its dispersed and scattered built environment, construction complexes designed for a never-ending growth of richness. Wealth is now finished but the territory remains violated, sometimes contaminated with a model of development that has had its day. Every Western country has its problems, skeletons in the closet and the scale of unsuccessful interventions often remains out of the context that would accommodate them.
Renovation is now a long time accepted keyword in contemporary design: Urban Renewal, Renovation of Modern Movement architecture, Renovation of Industrial Archeology and Renovation of abandoned sites.
Renovation is a design process as important from conceptual and philosophical point of view, as more elitist and still not very effective in its real intent of land transformation, urban and otherwise.
Recovery of our territory still does not hold up compared to its continuous consumption, consumption still dictated by a misguided search for prosperity.
Amount and size of abandoned scale excesses produce an Eco- systemic problem just because of their mere existence. The strong land use also bring into excessive consumption of non-renewable resources. Everything that’s larger and dispersed is hardly sustainable compared to what is more compact. Historical centers of Europe cities have lived and prospered in their condensed expansion, an urban scheme that allowed saving of resources despite ancient technologies. It is not a paradox that many of these technologies, often decidedly low-tech, are reused today in the redesign of these abandoned areas.
Factories, mines, barracks, large open spaces are today offered for subdivisions. Today there’s demand for a restatement of scale that takes into account the changed urban needs; a conversion of scale as a strong change in design; a true reversal of a trend that has often dominated the sizing towards a gigantism hungry for new resources. Today, many instances are mutating and the project scale is redesigned to a new more sustainable use, even at cost of a reallocation of resources, built and in ruins.
The goal today is to focus on this scale built revitalization, rethinking the whole Western model of development from within.
Research Interests:
Collezione di testi redatti dai diari degli Italiani durante la guerra civile 1943-45.