Ignazio Gardella
Encyclopedia
Ignazio Gardella was an Italian architect
and designer
.
In his university years he came into contact with other young protagonists of the Milanese scene together with whom he took part in the creation of the Italian Modern Movement.
(in '52 he founded, with others, the summer session in Venice; in '59 he participated in CIAM
X in Otterlo
in Holland), or the first INU conferences (starting in 1949).
as well, starting as early as 1947, when he founded the Azucena
Agency with Luigi Caccia Dominioni, the first that inaugurated Italian design production of high quality. Gardella designed primarily decorative furniture objects.
In the 1950s he came closer to regionalist currents, but his buildings also maintained an abstraction that distanced them from the most famous works of Neoliberty or Neorealism
.
In the 1960s and 1970s he seemed to adhere to a strictly professional form of practice like the Modern Movement or the International Style
. His Uffici Alfa Romeo (1969) oppsed the use of industrial materials and the development of a complex program. But then again, Gardella strictly controlled the form, imposing a symmetrical composition.
In the 1980s he seemed to stick to the Post Modern, but he did not in reality share its principals. Thus he himself said, "It is always difficult to say who are the fathers and who the sons. But Mario Ridolfi and I said, jokingly, that if we were really the fathers of all the works exhibited (at the 1980 Venice Biennale) we would have to admit (...) to having gone to bed with women of every type and every race." (s. Guidarini, 2002).
In reality there are aspects of his work that remain the same throughout his long career and constitute a continuity. These aspects can be synthesized in two completmentary points:
- Gardella's architecture always maintains a composure that could be called 'classic'. This can be deduced from the extreme refinement of his details, which are comparable to those of his contemporary and friend Franco Albini
, whether by control of the complete design of a building or because of the design of architectural spaces. In his architecture there is a preoccupation with and emphasis on the immediate, on the style of the moment, and a research for a kind of timelessness.
- Complementing this aspect is his capacity to change registers, to adapt himself to the genius loci
(the spirit of a place), as few other architects have succeeded to do. If the almost contemporary Case Borsalino in Alessandria
are compared with the Casa alle Zattere in Venice, one realizes that there is a great difference. The materials have changed, as have the decorative elements and the conception of volume. This is clearly owed to his will to take up influences from the built environment or context.
to be part of the staff of the IUAV. His academic career brought him to the post of Professore Ordinario in 1962, which he held until 1975.
for Architecture (1955), the 1977 Medaglia d'oro del Presidente della Repubblica ai benemeriti della Scuola, della Cultura e dell'Arte (Gold Medal, the Leone d'Oro alla carriera dalla Biennale di Venezia (1996), Honorary membership in RIBA
(Royal Institute of British Architects), and member of the Accademia di San Luca
and socio onorario of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
.
Biography
Born into a family of architects, the first of which was his namesake Ignazio Gardella (senior), he graduated in engineering from the Politecnico di Milano university in 1928 (while he received his degree in architecture from the IUAV in 1949).In his university years he came into contact with other young protagonists of the Milanese scene together with whom he took part in the creation of the Italian Modern Movement.
Professional activity
His long professional activity, which began before his graduation at the end of the '20s with his father Arnaldo Gardella, produced an enormous quantity of projects and realizations.The CIAM
In the same years he was a leader of important cultural events, like CIAMCIAM
CIAM may refer to:* Commission Internationale Aeromodelling, a section of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale* Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne, the International Congress of Modern Architecture...
(in '52 he founded, with others, the summer session in Venice; in '59 he participated in CIAM
CIAM
CIAM may refer to:* Commission Internationale Aeromodelling, a section of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale* Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne, the International Congress of Modern Architecture...
X in Otterlo
Otterlo
Otterlo is a small village in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe....
in Holland), or the first INU conferences (starting in 1949).
International maestro
The figure of Gardella remained at the vertexes of the Made in Italy of architecture for all in the '60s and '70s, with intense professional activity whose importance is proven by his presence in international publications. In the last phase of his life, Gardella, now among the eminences grises of Italian architecture, still produced significant projects, like the Faculty of Architecture of Genoa (1975–1989), which brought him once more to the front lines of the architectural debate.The designer activity
Gardella's activity has had a determining role in the field of designDesign
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
as well, starting as early as 1947, when he founded the Azucena
Azucena
Azucena is a Venezuelan telenovela that was produced by and seen on Venezuela's Radio Caracas Televisión. It was written by María Antonieta Gómez and Édgar Mejías, and directed by Tito Rojas...
Agency with Luigi Caccia Dominioni, the first that inaugurated Italian design production of high quality. Gardella designed primarily decorative furniture objects.
Architecture according to Gardella
If one looks for Ignazio Gardella's style, one is likely to be disoriented. His projects, over the years, changed according to changing architectural tendencies, often anticipating them, but always containing elements that diverged from the current with which they might be associated. Gardella is one of the Italian Rationalists, but his use of local construction techniques, like the famous brick screen of the Dispensario in Alessandria, makes him in some ways a heretic.In the 1950s he came closer to regionalist currents, but his buildings also maintained an abstraction that distanced them from the most famous works of Neoliberty or Neorealism
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
.
In the 1960s and 1970s he seemed to adhere to a strictly professional form of practice like the Modern Movement or the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
. His Uffici Alfa Romeo (1969) oppsed the use of industrial materials and the development of a complex program. But then again, Gardella strictly controlled the form, imposing a symmetrical composition.
In the 1980s he seemed to stick to the Post Modern, but he did not in reality share its principals. Thus he himself said, "It is always difficult to say who are the fathers and who the sons. But Mario Ridolfi and I said, jokingly, that if we were really the fathers of all the works exhibited (at the 1980 Venice Biennale) we would have to admit (...) to having gone to bed with women of every type and every race." (s. Guidarini, 2002).
In reality there are aspects of his work that remain the same throughout his long career and constitute a continuity. These aspects can be synthesized in two completmentary points:
- Gardella's architecture always maintains a composure that could be called 'classic'. This can be deduced from the extreme refinement of his details, which are comparable to those of his contemporary and friend Franco Albini
Franco Albini
Franco Albini was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect and designer.A native of Robbiate, near Milan, Albini obtained his degree in architecture at Politecnico di Milano University in 1929 and began his professional career working for Gio Ponti. He started displaying his works at...
, whether by control of the complete design of a building or because of the design of architectural spaces. In his architecture there is a preoccupation with and emphasis on the immediate, on the style of the moment, and a research for a kind of timelessness.
- Complementing this aspect is his capacity to change registers, to adapt himself to the genius loci
Genius loci
In classical Roman religion a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding a Cornucopia, patera and/or a snake. There are many Roman altars found in Western Europe dedicated in whole or in part to the particular Genius Loci...
(the spirit of a place), as few other architects have succeeded to do. If the almost contemporary Case Borsalino in Alessandria
Alessandria
-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
are compared with the Casa alle Zattere in Venice, one realizes that there is a great difference. The materials have changed, as have the decorative elements and the conception of volume. This is clearly owed to his will to take up influences from the built environment or context.
Works and important projects
From among his first buildings one could note the Antitubercular Dispensary of Alessandria (1934–38) which is one of the masterpieces of rationalist architecture.Before the War
Before the war he also participated in several important architecture competitions such as:- 1933-36 Extension of the Villa Borletti in MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. - 1934 Progetto di concorso per la torre littoria di Piazza del Duomo a MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
(non realizzato). - 1934-38 Dispensario Antitubercolare di Alessandria.
- 1944 The Milano-Verde (Green Milan) Plan (with the CasabellaCasabellaCasabella is an Italian architectural and product design magazine with a focus on modern, radical design. It includes interviews with the world's most prominent architects....
group, including Franco AlbiniFranco AlbiniFranco Albini was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect and designer.A native of Robbiate, near Milan, Albini obtained his degree in architecture at Politecnico di Milano University in 1929 and began his professional career working for Gio Ponti. He started displaying his works at...
, Giuseppe PaganoGiuseppe PaganoGiuseppe Pagano was an Italian architect, notable for his involvement in the movement of rationalist architecture in Italy up to the end of the Second World War....
e Giovanni Romano);
After the War
In the early postwar Gardella took up once more his activity with full vigor, producing many important works and some masterpieces such as:- 1944-47 Casa del Viticultore
- 1947-54 Padiglione d'Arte ContemporaneaPadiglione d'Arte ContemporaneaPadiglione d'arte contemporanea is a contemporary art museum in Milan, Italy. It is located in via Palestro, near Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli.- References :* - External links :*...
in Milan (PAC) (which he rebuilt himself – with his son Jacopo Gardella - in 1996 after the attack of 1993). - 1952 Case Borsalino in AlessandriaAlessandria-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
. - 1953-58 Casa alle Zattere in Venice
- 1958 Mensa OlivettiOlivettiOlivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
in IvreaIvreaIvrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...
. - 1969 Uffici Alfa Romeo in Arese.
- 1969 Project for the theater of VicenzaVicenzaVicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
(not realized). - 1969-75 Piano particolareggiato for the area of San Donato and San Silvestro in GenoaGenoaGenoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
(partially carried out with Silvano Larini, Jacopo Gardella, Daniele Vitale, Giuliano Nardi) . - 1975-89 Faculty of Architecture of Genoa.
- 1981-90 Teatro Comunale Carlo Felice. in GenoaGenoaGenoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
(with Aldo RossiAldo RossiAldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design.-Early life:...
, Bruno Reichlin and Angelo Sibilla).
Writings
The publications of Gardella, though they include many articles and projects published in all of the major international reviews, lack theoretical interest. A list of his publications is available at:- Interview with Ignazio Gardella by Antonio Monestiroli, in L'architettura secondo Gardella, Bari-Roma, Laterza,1997.
University professor
Gardella also had an important role in education, from his invitation in 1949 by Giuseppe SamonàGiuseppe Samonà
Giuseppe Samonà was an Italian architect and urban planner, whose notable works include the post office in the Appio quarter of Rome , the Banca d'Italia in Padua and a theatre in Sciacca, Sicily ....
to be part of the staff of the IUAV. His academic career brought him to the post of Professore Ordinario in 1962, which he held until 1975.
Awards
He won many prizes, among which are the: Premio Nazionale of OlivettiOlivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
for Architecture (1955), the 1977 Medaglia d'oro del Presidente della Repubblica ai benemeriti della Scuola, della Cultura e dell'Arte (Gold Medal, the Leone d'Oro alla carriera dalla Biennale di Venezia (1996), Honorary membership in RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
(Royal Institute of British Architects), and member of the Accademia di San Luca
Accademia di San Luca
The Accademia di San Luca, was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome, under the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists", which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. Other founders included Girolamo...
and socio onorario of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.
External links
- pagina monografica del sito Vitruvio
- Casa alle Zattere in Venice (with drawings)