Italy - A New Architectural Landscape

Every five or six years, a different country takes the architectural lead in Europe: England came to the fore with High Tech in the early 80s; by the end of the 80s, France came to prominence with Francois Mitterand’s great Parisian projects; in the 90s, Spain and Portugal were discovering a new tradition; and recently the focus has been on The Netherlands. In this ever shifting European landscape, Italy is now set to challenge the status quo. Already home to some of the world’s most well-renowned architects - Renzo Piano, Massimiliano Fuksas and Antonio Citterio – it also has many talented architects like Mario Cucinella, Italo Rota, Stefano Boeri, the ABDR group and Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo, who are now gaining international attention. Moreover there is an extraordinary emergence of younger architects – the Erasmus generation ­– that is beginning to realise some very promising buildings of their own.

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi is an architectural critic and a professor of contemporary architectural history at the La Sapienza University in Rome. He writes for Domus, The Plan, L’Arca, Abitare and Architectural Design. He is also the Italian correspondent for A10 (Holland), Monument (Australia) and The Architects’ Newspaper (US). He is the director of the weekly presS/Tletter, and curator of numerous exhibitions and events, including the Italian Pavilion at the Brazil Biennale, and a member of the IRCH executive committee. Books include Forme e ombre, introduzione all’architettura contemporanea, 1905–1933 (Testo & Immagine, 2003), Introduzione all’architettura (Meltemi, 2004), Antonio Citterio (Edilstampa, 2005), and Dieci Anni di architettura: 1996–2006 (Prospettive Edizioni, 2006).

Introduction.
'Complexity and Contradiction': The Italian Architectural Landscape (Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi).
Between Pragmatism and Theory (Francesco Proto).
The Superstars.
Defining Distinction, or Four Good Reasons for Success: The Extraordinary Career of (Renzo Piano, Livio Sacchi).
The World's Biggest Sculptor: The Architecture of Massimiliano Fuksas (Stefano Casciani).
Building as Refined Object: The Architecture of Antonio Citterio (Sebastiano Brandolini).
The Middle Generation.
Confronting the Contemporary: Stefano Boeri (Diego Caramma).
'Shared Play': Italo Rota (Luca Molinari).
Nothing More than a Fragile Edge: Blurring the Boundaries with Mario Cucinella (Anna Giorgi).
Arlotti- Beccu- Desideri- Raimondo (Massimo Locci).
Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo (Massimo Locci).
The Young Generation.
The Young Experimentalists (Anna Baldini).
Young Romans: 'Fully, Not Partially Controlled' (Valerio Paolo Mosco).
The Young Sensualists (Pino Scaglione).
Perceptions.
Radical Italian Architecture Yesterday and Today (William Menking and Olympia Kazi).
Italian Architecture from the Inside (Fulvio Irace).
Italian Architecture from the Outside In (Hans Ibelings).
The Italian Architectural Press (Valentina Croci).
Interior Eye.
Yale Art Gallery (Jayne Merkel).
Building Profile.
Kaleidoscope (Jeremy Melvin).
Practice Profile.
Saucier + Perrotte Architectes (Brian Carter).
Yeang's Eco Files.
Power Plants (Ken Yeang).
Milan From Inside Out (Valentina Croci).
McLean's Nuggets (Will McLean).
Cinemetrics FAQ (Brian McGrath and Jean Gardner).