Tuesday night we had our first of a series (I think there will be 5) of lectures by widely respected architects. There’s TONS to talk about here, so let me start with a bit of background.
Fulvio Irace is a Milanese architect, professor of architecture and author. I couldn’t find much about him on the internet, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. He hung around all week and participated in my crit on Friday and I’m pretty impressed. He seems like someone you could have a great conversation with, although I didn’t really get a chance.
There’s an architecture thing that happens every two years. I didn’t know anything about it, but apparently it’s a big deal and most people know about it. Here’s the link to this year’s event: Biennale Artitettura. Tuesday night’s talk was taken from Fulvio Irace’s talk and exhibit at the Biennale.
My knowledge of history is woefully spotty, and if you’re like me you did not realize that Milan was very badly damaged by Allied bombing in World War II.
The topic of the lecture was “Face City”, a look at the facades of the buildings in Milan built in the 1950s and 1960s during the rebuilding of the city after World War II. The lecture was largely composed of photos of the buildings and discussions of the facades, which was interesting in itself; but it also introduced me to a number of Italian architects that I had never heard of including my new architecture love, Gio Ponti.
So, I still need to do some research and investigation, but here’s some information about Gio Ponti for anyone that doesn’t already know who he is:
- Overview on DesignMuseum.org
- Industrial Design on Architonic.com
- One of Gio Ponti’s Facades
- And below a photo of the Villa Planchart, which reminds me of Le Corbusier’s Chapel of Notre Dame de Haute at Ronchamp
Gio Ponti’s Villa Planchart in Caracas