Ark's life
To Protect a Modern Monument: the Nervi’s Stadium Case in Florence
To be fitted to modern standards, the Franchi stadium in Florence needs from along time to cover the bleachers, bring the public of the curves closer to the play field, and add the accessory…
Bribes by Chance
In Renaissance treatises, the figure of the architect is described as having not only technical and cultural qualities, but also moral ones: probity, correctness, prudence and so on. Even then, in…
Rural Traps
Once upon a time, somewhere in the flat west of Florence, there was a large abandoned farmhouse, once beautiful and valuable but now ruined and invaded by brambles and brushwood. One day someone…
The Outlaw Balcony
In an apartment in the old center of a beautiful city lived a family that had a big problem, because the little daughter, due to her disability, was forced to spend the days always at home. Of the…
Antigone in the Elevator
It’s obvious that an architect must follow law, ethics and the principles of fairness in any performance of his work. However, in the events of life he may be faced with cases of conscience.…
The doormat affair
In Italy, around the 1980s, housing cooperatives were a significant source of work for architects and engineers. There were various kinds of cooperatives, large or small, Catholic or Communist…
If Calling…
‘Se telefonando’… I always enjoy listening to this old Mina song, also because I associate it with an adventure. Not a few years ago, my friend R. asked me if I would help him take…
Esprit des Lois and Accessibility for Disabled
Designing spaces accessibility for disabled people is nowadays a child’s play: the standards are provided by precise lists with criteria, measures, cases, aids and so on; and then on the…
Profitable Rents
One day I had to do some controls in an apartment in a narrow street of the old town. I go, ring the bell, but no one answers. I wait patiently on the doorstep; sooner or later someone will open.…
A Dudok’s Hydrophany
On an August afternoon many years ago, I went to Hilversum to see its famous Town Hall, Dudok’s masterpiece. Willem Marinus Dudok, the greatest exponent of Dutch neo-plasticism and a follower…