20.06.2023—21.06.2023

Architecture between Switzerland and Italy

Architecture, Conference, Milano

20.06.2023 H12:00-20:00
21.06.2023 H09:00-19:30

Dates
20.06.2023
21.06.2023
Location
Milano
Category
Architecture, Conference
Information

20.06.2023 H12:00-20:00
21.06.2023 H09:00-19:30

The conference will take place in Italian at Istituto Svizzero, via del Vecchio Politecnico 3, Milan. Free entrance.

Architecture between Switzerland and Italy: Dialogues, Convergences, Perspectives

The conference aims to create an inter-institutional platform for the historical analysis of the architectural relations between the two countries. Despite the deep roots of these relations in the history of both nations, there has not been any systematic examination of them. From renowned masters like Francesco Borromini and Carlo Fontana to Ticinese artisans who, since the fifteenth century, have established vibrant centres of architectural production across the Italian peninsula, these exchanges continued well into the twentieth century thanks to the activity of figures like Mario Chiattone and Alberto Sartoris. But it was during and after the Second World War that the two countries, due to renewed economic and diplomatic relations, forged a solid architectural dialogue that persists to this day. From academic collaborations, like that between Aldo Rossi and ETH Zurich, to professional partnerships, like that between Herzog & de Meuron and Feltrinelli, Italy and Switzerland have created a special relationship in architecture, thus making a decisive contribution to the global conversation in the discipline.

The conference will address the long and rich history of Swiss-Italian relations in architecture by bringing together more than 30 academics from more than 15 institutions who will partake in four thematic panels and one roundtable. By featuring a broad chronological framework, the event will shed light on the architectural relationships between Switzerland and Italy since the early modern times, focusing on the intense exchanges of the last seventy years.

The event is jointly organized by ETH Zurich and the Politecnico di Milano. Organizers: Dr. Gregorio Astengo (ETH Zurich), Prof. Dr. Paolo Scrivano (Politecnico di Milano), Dr. Davide Spina (ETH Zurich / ZHAW).

The conference is organized by:

Gregorio Astengo is an architect and historian. He holds an MA from Politecnico di Torino (2012), a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Architectural Research from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (2014) and PhD from the Bartlett (2019), funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Gregorio Astengo was a teaching assistant at UCL and Queen Mary (University of London), adjunct professor at Syracuse University London, lecturer at the New College of the Humanities and Postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich. Since January 2023, he is a Postdoc Mobility Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation. His main research interests are the impact of real estate on architectural history and the production of technical literature for architecture.

Paolo Scrivano is Associate Professor of the history of architecture at Politecnico di Milano. After receiving a PhD from Politecnico di Torino, he has taught at the University of Toronto, at Boston University, and at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He has been Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts of the National Gallery of Art and has received research funds from the Australian Research Council, Boston University’s Humanities Foundation, and the Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is the author of the volumes Storia di un’idea di architettura moderna. Henry-Russell Hitchcock e l’lnternational Style, Olivetti Builds: Modern Architecture in Ivrea (as co-author) and Building Transatlantic Italy: Architectural Dialogues with Postwar America. He is also scientific coordinator of the international network Mapping Architectural Criticism, based at the UniversitĂ© Rennes 2.

Davide Spina is a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, where he also completed his doctorate, and an SNSF Researcher at ZHAW. Previously he studied architectural history at the Bartlett, UCL. Davide Spina was a fellow at Istituto Svizzero in Rome (2018–19) and Milan (2021–22), and is a co-organiser of DocTalks, an international online platform for early-stage researchers in architectural history and theory. He has presented at international conferences, such as that of the Society of Architectural Historians and the European Architectural History Network, and his writing has appeared in Architectural History, AA Files, Log and gta Papers. His forthcoming book with MIT Press examines the post-war activities of the Italian real-estate developer and contractor SGI.

Programme:

Tuesday 20.06.2023

H12:00-12:30 ― Institutional greetings and introduction
Maria Böhmer
 (Istituto Svizzero)
Gregorio Astengo, Paolo Scrivano, Davide Spina
(Politecnico di Milano/ETH Zurich)

H12:30-15:30 ― Session 1: Mobilità cisalpina: prospettive premoderne
Moderators: Maarten Delbeke (ETH Zurich), Nicola Navone (Archivio del Moderno, USI)

Edoardo Rossetti (I Tatti – Harvard), Strategie di insediamento e reti di relazioni degli architetti ticinesi a Roma (XV-prima metĂ  del XVI Secolo)

Stefania Bianchi (AST), MobilitĂ  e saperi fra teoria e pratiche di bottega (secoli XVI-XVIII)

Giuseppe Bonaccorso (University of Camerino), Le strategie politiche e professionali dell’atelier di Carlo Fontana

Roberto Santamaria (University of Geneva, Università di Genova), Continuità e versatilità: la famiglia Aprile tra la Svizzera italiana, Genova ed Europa nei secoli XV-XIX

Maria Gabriella Pezone (UniversitĂ  degli Studi della Campania), Un architetto di Novazzano a Roma tra Sei e Settecento: Carlo Buratti e le radici ticinesi

H15:30-16:00 ― Coffee break

H16:00-19:00 ― Session 2: Immaginare il dopoguerra
Moderators: Stanislaus von Moos (UZH), Gaia Caramellino (Politecnico di Milano)

Salvatore Aprea and Serena Maffioletti (EPFL / IUAV), La singolare condizione di uno spazio e di un tempo per il dialogo e il confronto: i campi universitari di internamento in Svizzera

Paolo Scrivano (Politecnico di Milano) and Patrizia Bonifazio (Fondazione Guelpa Ivrea), Tra cultura degli anni Trenta e Ricostruzione: Adriano Olivetti in Svizzera, 1944 – 1945

Maria Vittoria Capitanucci (Politecnico di Milano), Vito (e Gustavo) Latis e la Svizzera

Andreas Kalpakci (ETH Zurich), ‘Come funzionano i CIAM?’ La mostra delle griglie a Bergamo del 1949

Roberto Fabbri (Zayed University, UAE), Una ‘RealtĂ  Nuova’: Max Bill nell’Italia del dopoguerra

H19:00-20:00 ― Aperitif


Wednesday 21.06.2023 

H09:00-12:00 ― Session 3: L’architetto come mediatore
Moderatori: Laurent Stalder (ETH Zurich), Beatrice Lampariello (UC Louvain)

Ákos Moravånszky (ETH Zurich), Dislocazioni. Mappatura e composizione tipologica nel corso di Aldo Rossi al Politecnico di Zurigo, 1972-1974

AndrĂ© Bideau (Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio), Gli artefatti transistorici di AndrĂ© Corboz. Rianimazione: un concetto critico per la conservazione negli anni ’70

Sylvain Malfroy (Independent scholar), ‘Nessuno entri che non sia italofilo’: La rinascita del Grand Tour nella formazione architettonica della Svizzera francese negli anni ’70 e ’80

Sonja Hildebrand (Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio), Il linguaggio dell’arte: Trix e Robert Haussmann da Palazzo del Tù a Studio Marconi

Pierre-Alain Croset (Politecnico di Milano), Luigi Snozzi e l’Italia

H12:00-13:30 ― Lunch break

H13:30-16:30 ― Session 4: Costruire oltre il confine
Moderatori: Linda Stagni (ETH Zurich), Angelo Lunati (Politecnico di Milano)

Eliana Perotti (ZHAW), Una UnitĂ© d’Habitation per la siderurgia italiana. Flora Ruchat-Roncati e il progetto per il complesso residenziale La Colasiderta a Taranto (1976–1981)

Gabriele Neri (Politecnico di Torino / Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio), Il Centro Svizzero di Milano di Armin Meili

Giacinta Jean and Roberta Martinis (SUPSI, Mendrisio), Casa Zentner: una Villa di Carlo Scarpa a Zurigo

Gabriele Cappellato (Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio), Mario Botta e la cultura Italiana nella formazione e professione

Alberto Caruso (Caruso Mainardi Architetti), ‘È complesso e difficile costruire fuori dai confini’. Il caso di Herzog & de Meuron

H16:30-17:00 ― Coffee break

H17:00-18:30 ― Roundtable: Ingegneria d’oltralpe
Respondent: Alberto Bologna (Sapienza UniversitĂ  di Roma)

Giulia Boller (ETH Zurich), Nuovi orientamenti di scienza delle costruzioni. Le origini svizzere del primo manuale italiano sul calcestruzzo armato precompresso

Lukas Ingold (ETH Zurich), I ponti autostradali di Ernst Schmidt in Italia

Ilaria Giannetti (UniversitĂ  di Roma Tor Vergata), La costruzione dell’Autostrada N2 nel Canton Ticino: Tracce di un dialogo Italo-Svizzero sulle costruzioni in cemento armato

H18:30-19:30 ― Keynote event: Bruno Reichlin in conversation with Laurent Stalder

Read the abstracts here