Trailer Architecture as a journey

Not eligible for AIA CES Credits

The lesson highlights the figure of the architect and designer Italo Rota, showing his training and references: from the first professional experiences to the most recent works. A path that revolves around the theme of the "journey" which becomes a tool to connect profession with passions and personal interests.

Along this trajectory some figures emerge, such as those of Franco Albini and Vittorio Gregotti, the first junctions in the architect's career, up to the working experience with Gae Aulenti for an installation project for the Orsay Museum in Paris.

In addition to the theme of travel, the relationship between art and architecture emerges within professional practice, where the "museum" becomes a place of experimentation and research.

The museum, the exhibition architecture, is the starting point for the story of themes and projects that characterized the career of the architect Italo Rota: from the pavilions - starting from the one for the Zaragoza Expo in 2008 to that of Kuwait for Expo 2015 in Milan - to media libraries, passing through other important museums, such as that of the twentieth century in Milan. The question is narration, its development, the relationship between spaces and works, between art and architecture, with the city going from being a mere spectator to an element of the museum itinerary. In this regard, the case of the Museo del Novecento is emblematic, where the Arengario palace is transformed to accommodate the city, embracing Piazza Duomo and opening views of the most important Milanese architecture in a continuous dialogue with the works on display: Lucio Fontana and the spiers Neo-Gothic.

The exhibition architecture is also a measure of the experimental progress proposed by the architect Rota, in the forms and materials on one side and on the other in the proposal of a new paradigm that looks at contemporary challenges and changes, turning to the future, as in the case of the Italian pavilion designed for the 2020 Dubai Expo with Carlo Ratti Associati.

Many others are the themes that emerge from the lesson: from the importance of writing to the idea of an enlarged architecture, putting the themes of environment and mobility on the work table, where the application of the most advanced technology prefigures new ways of live.

Educational objectives

• You will know the educational experience of the architect Italo Rota in his evolution, moving from the professional figures and the first works to highlight themes and reflections
• You will analyze the projects developed throughout the architect's career, discovering objectives and intentions through both compositional and technological experiments
• You will deepen the theme of museum and exhibition architecture, the relationship between art and architecture, the construction of a narrative that is always different and tailored to the context in which it is placed
• You will  see the current and future themes of the architectural project, moving from the future challenges to be faced both in terms of climate change and new technologies, moving from the environment to mobility, ending with the new forms of living