The essay, included in the volume "Visionary Power. Producing the Contemporary City", moves from the assumption that today, notwithstanding the fact that we are witness to impressive processes of urbanization and concentration – no longer exclusively in Asia, but also in the Middle East and in Africa – the reflection on the future of the world-metropolis is still being played out in the European city. The characteristic of discontinuity that marks the urban form of the European city - interpreted through history in the theoretical works of Piranesi, Le Corbusier and OMA - is therefore read as a critical paradigm of contemporary condition. It is within the conceptual density of the European city, the effect of the experimental and often devastating succession of strategies – in Rome as in Paris, Berlin and Rotterdam – that the architectural project becomes, in fact, a critical instrument that can be used to formulate an opinion about the city itself and proactively question its current and past conditions. The publication POWER. Producing the Contemporary City serves as a catalogue for the third edition of the International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam, ‘Visionary Power’ (2007), but also stands in its own right as a source of new expertise on the development of the city in the 21st century. The book draws together research about the foundations of the contemporary city, discusses forces that have a bearing on its development, formulates the task for architects and urban planners, and presents strategies with which they can operate in the midst of this interplay of forces, on the basis of topical, coherent visions for the 21st-century city.
The book includes essays by Kenneth Frampton, Gabriele Mastrigli, Roemer Van Toorn, Martijn de Waal, Sharon Zukin and many others.

In praise of Discontinuity. Or "La Leçon de Rome"

MASTRIGLI, GABRIELE
2007-01-01

Abstract

The essay, included in the volume "Visionary Power. Producing the Contemporary City", moves from the assumption that today, notwithstanding the fact that we are witness to impressive processes of urbanization and concentration – no longer exclusively in Asia, but also in the Middle East and in Africa – the reflection on the future of the world-metropolis is still being played out in the European city. The characteristic of discontinuity that marks the urban form of the European city - interpreted through history in the theoretical works of Piranesi, Le Corbusier and OMA - is therefore read as a critical paradigm of contemporary condition. It is within the conceptual density of the European city, the effect of the experimental and often devastating succession of strategies – in Rome as in Paris, Berlin and Rotterdam – that the architectural project becomes, in fact, a critical instrument that can be used to formulate an opinion about the city itself and proactively question its current and past conditions. The publication POWER. Producing the Contemporary City serves as a catalogue for the third edition of the International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam, ‘Visionary Power’ (2007), but also stands in its own right as a source of new expertise on the development of the city in the 21st century. The book draws together research about the foundations of the contemporary city, discusses forces that have a bearing on its development, formulates the task for architects and urban planners, and presents strategies with which they can operate in the midst of this interplay of forces, on the basis of topical, coherent visions for the 21st-century city.
The book includes essays by Kenneth Frampton, Gabriele Mastrigli, Roemer Van Toorn, Martijn de Waal, Sharon Zukin and many others.
2007
9789056625795
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11581/201647
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