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ARCHAM STUDIO+ALBERTO SOCI

ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION AND DESIGN

ARCHAM STUDIO - MILAN

The reading of the phenomenon of big expositions is often close to the media phantasmagoria of architectural gestures or the grandeur of the spectacular technology equipment of the event. The city-exposition ratio is thus declined - in today's context - according to a principle of extraordinary temporary where the architectural object concepts and urban morphology are exceeded by the fleeting "expressions impress at all costs." Re-read the story of the great expositions in their relationship with the construction of the city becomes the tool for understanding how the past - even recently - has been able to combine the nature of the event with the structure of the place and its cultural tradition. Vienna (1873), Paris (1889) and Lisbon (1998) are just a few examples of how the exposures have been able to contribute to the formation of the identity of the city, not as ephemeral events, but as parts of the city made of new foundation.

by Alberto Soci, with preface by Marina Montuori. Libraccio Publisher, Milan (2015)

This study aims to treat the figure of Alessandro Antonelli through an unusual and little investigated analysis of his works. The resulting research tries to be as far as possible from predefined critical positions, differentiating itself from many other writings of analogous subject through an investigation path that moves from the relationship between the great architectures of the author and the parallel construction of the nineteenth century's city. The narrative model of the bibliographic commentary links different points of view that over time have outlined the work of the Piedmontese architect, thus opening up to a more articulate and less linear re-reading of his work. Erasmus of Rotterdam in his famous written Elogio della Follia, affirmed that "audacity" and "lack of modesty" are the prerequisites for a free experimentation that has as its goal the knowledge; two characteristics that have accompanied Antonelli along the entire artistic-professional path and that have allowed him to write some of the most beautiful pages in the history of Italian architecture.

by Alberto Soci. Libraccio Publisher, Milan (2017)

The relationship between the city of Milan and the major exhibitions dates back to 1881, when Giovanni Ceruti - a learner of Camillo Boito - assisted by engineers Stefli and Santamaria, was created on the complex of the Giardini Pubblici di Porta Venezia, the Industrial Exposition. The fortune of this event is the prelude to the most important and complex International Exposition of 1906. As for 1881 it was decided to place the exhibition in the heart of the historical fabric of the city; it was done using the areas of the existing Sempione Park and not far from Piazza delle Armi (then Fiera Campionaria). The task for the general plan was entrusted to Arch. Sebastiano Giuseppe Locati - also a pupil of Boito and assistant of Ceruti in 1881 - who, following the example of Chicago (1893) and Paris (1900), did not turn his attention to the design of a part of the city that was bound to the existing one, but rather, to a punctual attention to the single artifact (from the stylistic point of view, of architectural design) and to the definition - especially for the area of Piazza delle Armi, geometrically rotated with respect to the existing urban morphological structure - of a plant with functional distribution.

Alberto Soci, Milano 1906. Architettura Esposizione Città, in «Il Disegno di Architettura», n.42, Ronca Publisher, Cremona (2018)