Documentation
The book presents a contemporary picture of the urban development models devised by the Modern Movement and a reflection on what they mean today. Chandigarh and Brasilia, newly founded cities built ex nihilo in 1950-1960, looked explicitly to the “functionalist” and “rationalist” traditions of modern town planning. Also, like some of the plans inspired by the neoclassical that were prepared in the early decades of the 20th century, especially for the building of government capitals or civic centres, they both sought to fulfil monumental ambitions to represent state institutions. The book examines the contemporary reality of Chandigarh and Brasilia through a grid of catchwords that sum up the distinctively modern terms in which the two projects are stated. Divided into two main categories, Urbanism and Architecture, the catchwords accompany the reader along a photographic sequence that helps to define an “official” idiom whereby architecture was expected to represent the “modernisation” of both countries.
Texts in English by Josep Acebillo, Maristella Casciato, Stanislaus von Moos.
Photographs by: Enrico Cano.
Twilight of the Plan: Chandigarh and Brasilia
edited by
Maristella Casciato,
Stanislaus von Moos
16,5 × 19 cm, 196 pp.
148 ill. col., 77 ill. b/w
paperback
english
ISBN 9788887624342
€ 16 / frs 25.-
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Arduino Cantàfora, the architect and painter who worked for a long time with Aldo Rossi, has been one of the outstanding personalities at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture. His courses represented a highly idiosyncratic attitude to the figure of the teacher, the maestro. Hence the title of the exhibition (Museo d’arte Mendrisio, 10 February 25 March 2007) and its catalogue. The sequence presented, in the exhibition and in the book, is spread over a selection of works by the artist, his assistant Annina Ruf, and students who have attended his ateliers at the Accademia. The event seeks to show how Cantàfora’s art is also an art of the paideia: educational in the formation of tools with which to understand and represent the world and its natural as well as architectural forms. Viewed together, the works of Cantàfora and of his pupils thus stimulate visitors and readers to explore one of the core issues of artistic cultures: the transmissibility of their knowledge.
L'immagine maestra. Opere di Arduino Cantàfora e dei suoi atelier
edited by
Bruno Pedretti
22 × 24 cm, 116 pp.
45 ill. col., 68 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 9788887624311
€ 20 / frs 30.-
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Moscow is today a mighty laboratory for experimentation in social and economic policy and urban planning. As a free market forms and capitalism gathers pace, a new metropolis of a kind never seen before is being born. Following the history of utopian experiments and physical transformations of the city in the 20th century, we can distinguish at least three different and specific approaches to the formation of a model of New Moscow: in the urban experimental projects of the 1920s, and in the master plans of 1935 and 1971. The goal of "New Moscow 4" is to show the kind of transformations Moscow has experienced since the renunciation of socialism, to help identify the character of the city’s regeneration as it switches to a capitalist economy, and to outline prospects for the city’s further development.
Texts in English by Josep Acebillo, Blair A. Ruble, Alessandro De Magistris, Irina Korobina, Il’ya Lezhava.
New Moscow 4
edited by
Irina Korobina
16,5 × 19 cm, 180 pp.
184 ill. col., 34 ill. b/w
paperback
english
ISBN 9788887624135
€ 16 / frs 25.-
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The panorama of Mexican architecture at the beginning of this century is a variegated one, revealing the widest conceptual, stylistic and formal expressions and a happy mixture of the austere language of the Modern Movement, the lively idiom of the vernacular, and the legacy of Luis Barragán. This book illustrates the vibrant urban context of Mexico City in a selection of works by ten architects: the imposing embassy by Teodoro González de León, the metaphysical towers of Ricardo Legorreta, the buildings of Augustín Landa and Augusto Quijano, and the most recent accomplishments which are also so richly diverse in their aesthetic conception of Enrique Norten, Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta, Alberto Kalach, Javier Sánchez, Mauricio Rocha and Fernando Romero.
Texts in English by Josep Acebillo, Néstor García Canclini, José Luis Cortés Delgado, Miquel Adriá.
Contemporary Mexican Architectures
edited by
Miquel Adriá
16,5 × 19 cm, 116 pp.
40 ill. col., 13 ill. b/w
paperback
english
ISBN 8887624046
€ 16 / frs 25.-
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Structure is a fundamental aspect of construction. It concerns both engineers and architects who, however, often speak mutually incomprehensible languages. The purpose of this book is to foster dialogue between their two professions, so as to optimise their common work. Originating from the courses held at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, the book adopts a reader-friendly, lively and immediately understandable approach utilizing graphic visualisation.
Aurelio Muttoni, L'arte delle strutture. Introduzione al funzionamento delle strutture in architettura
24 x 24 cm, 264 pp.
200 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 8887624038
€ 42 / frs 65.–
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By treating architecture as all the changes made by man to the earth’s surface, Leonardo Benevolo outlines in this book the widest history of the actual idea of architecture: from prehistory to Graeco-Roman and Far Eastern antiquity, from the Christian and Islamic middle ages to the century of science, from the industrial revolution to the new relations between city and territory.
Leonardo Benevolo, I segni dell'uomo sulla terra. Una guida alla storia del territorio
edited by
Enrico Sassi
24 x 24 cm, 348 pp.
571 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 888762402X
€ 45 / frs 70.–
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The work of the two Barcelona architects, in partnership since 1984 and known chiefly for their achievements in the field of civil and public architecture, is presented here in a “thematic” catalogue that records their teaching at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture.
Esteban Bonell e Josep Maria Gil Architetti. Barcellona
edited by
Jacques Gubler
24 x 24 cm, 136 pp.
28 ill. col., 116 ill. b/w
paperback
italian / french
ISBN 8887624100
€ 33 / frs 50.-
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A multiple dialogue on the experience of pain, critically surveyed in relation also to the function served by the design of spaces allocated to its reception.
Every hospital in fact materialises the social, civil and cultural perception of pain.
Guido Ceronetti, Giovanni Pozzi, Emanuele Severino et al., La cognizione del dolore e i suoi spazi. Cura, guarigione e architettura
12.5 x 20.5 cm, 128 pp.
36 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 8887624259
€ 7 / frs 10.–
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The Clarté building in Geneva, conceived by Le Corbusier from 1930, is, curiously, one of the most important and least famous of the French-Swiss master’s works. For many reasons, which this catalogue expounds, it should in fact be considered one of the most interesting projects of the first half of the 20th century.
Le Corbusier. La costruzione dell'Immeuble Clarté
edited by
Luca Bellinelli
24 x 24 cm, 144 pp.
81 ill. col.
paperback
italian / french
ISBN 8887624003
€ 33 / frs 50.-
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Starting from Mario Botta’s San Carlino in Lugano – a homage to Borromini but also a synthesis of artistic, scientific and ethical values – this book is a dialogue developed between architecture, philosophy and history of art.
In it is reproduced the complete series of atelier drawings prepared by Botta for the realisation of that work.
Fulvio Papi, Stanislaus von Moos, Mario Botta et al., Per un'architettura vivente. Contributo per una nuova lettura del progetto
12.5 x 20.5 cm, 100 pp.
58 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 8887624267
€ 7 / frs 10.–
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With the passing of time, words depart from their original meaning and end up clothing an undesirable ambiguity very close, as the author of this dictionary discloses, to the hypocrisy of those still using them.
Albert Jacquard, Abbecedario dell'ambiguità. Dalla Z alla A: parole, cose, concetti
edited by
Cristiana Spinedi
17 x 24 cm, 140 pp.
paperback
italian
ISBN 8887624070
€ 13 / frs 20.–
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Building a place means taking part in the choice of daily obligations met by the people who will be living in it, thereby orienting the adventure of a whole community. If this is how we envisage the architect’s mission, then a preliminary reflection is called for: on the relations that link people together and to their host environment.
Albert Jacquard, René Burri, Dall'angoscia alla speranza. Una lezione di ecologia umana
edited by
Luca Gazzaniga, Cristiana Spinedi
24 x 24 cm, 148 pp.
139 ill. b/w
paperback
italian
ISBN 8887624011
€ 33 / frs 50.–
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