DESIGN
Dialogue 1.3
BALLET
Our guests explored the evolution of classical ideals and the interplay between tradition and innovation through the fascinating encounter of architecture and ballet. They discussed how strength, technique and perseverance help achieve balance, harmony and rhythm with precision and grace in both disciplines.
Architect Letizia Caruzzo presented examples of contemporary architecture that blend tradition and innovation, illustrating architecture as a civic art. From the Amsterdam School to the Rationalism of Berlin and Hamburg, from Le Corbusier’s vision of the contemporary metropolis in harmony with nature to the Spanish Rationalists, the influence of Rogers and the Milan School, and the Indian projects of Louis Kahn, the audience was taken on a journey through the interplay of rediscovered classicism and new expressive forms.
Letizia then reflected on her own projects for two large areas of Milan, Bovisa and Scalo Farini, each significant for the development of the city in a different way. Two themes unite them: the relationship between architecture and nature, that is, between the built landscape and the large open spaces of the new urban parks; and the role of public buildings, envisioned as cornerstones of community life.
In Bovisa, a large residential crescent traces the line of the railway, with paths and an elevated square overlooking the Gasometer Park, bordered to the south by buildings for research and culture linked to the Politecnico.
Bovisa, drawing by Letizia Caruzzo
In Scalo Farini, the arc of a long, suspended multifunctional building traces the edge of the park and sets out the position of residential towers with hanging gardens. At its ends it rests on two squares: the Philharmonic square to the north-west, with a “landscape building” that can be walked up to the top, and the Academy square to the south-east.
Scalo Farini, drawing by Letizia Caruzzo
These city drawings pursue harmony and the idea of a serene civic life, with recurring parameters, including:
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the transfigured use of historical forms,
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the shape of the theatre inside and outside the building,
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the treatment of light and shadow, which must be expertly captured and retained,
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the concept of the building's practicability, of an architectural promenade,
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the use of nature as a component of composition to make architecture changeable.
These imagined landscapes conveyed the harmony sought in the composition, which conquers and spreads the order and measure of forms: a harmony that, to bear witness to its time, should include fractures and dissonances.