Collapsing bridges, crumblingconcrete

The episode of the collapse of the bridge in Genoa has a deeper meaning than the rapacity of Italian capitalists and poor state of infrastucture in Italy. There was a time when there was an aesthetic of concrete ("béton brut") whihc represented progress and the beauty of modernity. And now we realize that reinforced concrete after only a few decades is crumbling, and that our civilistationsrisks to leave nothing of its architectonical endeavours in striking contrast with the eternity of the pyramids and the Roman aqueducts. It is a sad morale that the objects of the mdoernsit revolution are crumpling and perishable. It seems nonetheless that if concrete is added with some types of organic material it becomes super strong - maybe ecology is treally the answer to the crise of modernity.

Meier

I recentrly visited the "Jubilaeum church" of Richard Meier in Tor Tre Teste, in the suburbs of Rome. Simply perfect, and the comparison of this church with the "Ara pacis", that is not a very successful building, imposes a couple of consideration. The first is that the commisioner of a building does matter: the Church has a little more experience than Walter Veltroni in art and architecture. The second is that the leftist government of Rome of the former years wanted to break drastically with the past in inserting a modernist intervention in the fundamentally baroque urban tissue of the centre of Rome - but at the same time asked Meier not to break too drastically with the case that dated to the '30s of the last century and was a modest example of fascist rationalism -so that the german architect was obliged to reconcile his "lecorbuserian" conception with the fascist pompous attitude, he had to mantain more or less the original proportion and the organization of the ceiling, he had to build a wall of travertine - travertine was much loved by fascists because it reminded the Colosseum, but originally travertine was a relatively poor material that was hidden - in the Colosseum and elseqhere, by wonderfully coloured marbles .... In practice, the usualo stop and go strategy of PCI-PDS-PD

Colosseo Quadrato

The "Colosseo Quadrato" (Palce of the Italian Civilization) of EUR in Rome is a striking monument. I had occasion to observe it closely for a long period. It changes poetically its colour with weather conditions and the large glasses of the windows reflect the clouds of the sky. The strong shadows of the "holes" change ceaselessly with the time of the day. In summary, apart its obvious metaphysic character, it interacts with the surrounding environment in a fascinating way. The only problem is, that its volumes are useless for living, work, exposition, any other practical use. In other words, it is not architecture, but an (oversized) installation. Considering that perhaps the first recognized installations are by Fontana fifteen years later, quite an interesting piece of art.

razionalismo in architettura

L’architettura del 900 è l’architettura del cemento armato; le possibilità di questo materiale ha liberato dalla necessità che l’architettura fosse volumi solidi nello spazio (tendenzialmente il parallelepipedo e la sfera); ma questo non significa che sia obbligatorio e necessario ricercare, per una architettura “umana” la linea organica, curva; al contrario, il messaggio di Le Corbusier (nell’opera, forse non nell’intenzione) non sta tanto nel funzionalismo, quanto che l’essersi liberati dalle necessatià della statica ha reso possibile solo un’architettura lirica; e il massimo del lirismo può essere raggiunto e in alcuni rari casi è stato raggiunto (le Corbusier, va der Rohe) con le forme più semplici.