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2014 GROUND FLOOR CRISIS – FIRENZE

—Projects

GROUND FLOOR CRISIS – FIRENZE

2014

 

The effects of economic and real estate crisis are written in the radical transformation of the ground floors of the italian cities. Commerce becomes increasingly volatile, spaces of common use are privatized or regimented, the built volume is underutilized, houses substitute tertiary and specialized functions. All these phenomena tell us about the breach in the delicate relations of coexistence at the ground level.

 

The flood of 4 November 1966 produced a tabula rasa in both spatial and temporal terms. The sudden short-circuit provoked by the inundation of historic centres unveiled the intrinsic fragility of the ground floor and opened up for new urgent questions on the preservation regimes of cultural heritage. Any discourse on the uses and modifications of architecture within the italian cities is still largely influenced by the wake of that debate.

 

Accidentally, 1966 is also the year of publication of both L’Architettura della Città and Complexity and Contraddiction in Architecture. The renewed interest in the form of the city marked a radical shift – at least from a theoretical standpoint – in the apparently linear and inexorable trajectory of modern architecture.

 

Through a provisional omission on the catastrophic dimension of alluvial events, one can read the unusual image of the urban form produced by its recurring amphibious condition. The erasure of filters and sequences redefines the articulation of boundaries between interior and exterior spaces, between public and private realm. Water acts as a reagent. It provides a detailed diagnosis of the current condition of the city.

 

While the post-flood accounts and the inventory of damaged activities depict an accurate image of the ground floor use, the section plan of the water redraws its architectural consistency. Intercepting both monuments and minor buildings, both intimate and public spaces, it abolishes hierarchies, it reveals formal richness and it offers a palimpsest to be completely rewritten.

 

A project by

Matteo Ghidoni

 

with

 

Campomarzio

Pietro Vincenzo Ambrosini, Michele Andreatta, Alessandro Busana, Daniele Cappelletti, Karol Czarzasty, Enrico Lunelli, Enrico Varagnolo

 

Pool

Annapaola Busnardo, Grazia Comai, Caterina Gerolimetto

 

Salottobuono

Paolo Migliori, Francesco Zorzi

 

The Ship

Francesca Romana Dell’Aglio, Giorgio De Vecchi, Anna Livia Friel, Benjamin Gallegos Gabilondo, Marco Provinciali

 

Exhibited in  MONDITALIA

14th Venice Architecture Biennale – Fundamentals – curated by Rem Koolhaas

 

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More info

Salottobuono

Corso Sempione, 33
20145 Milano, I
office@salottobuono.com
www.salottobuono.com

Salottobuono is an architectural office based in Milan, directed by Matteo Ghidoni.

 

The studio’s work ranges from urban design to architecture, from temporary installations to exhibition design. Salottobuono is also constantly engaged in research, publishing and teaching activities. Always active in the international arena, the studio is currently in charge of developing public space and landscape redevelopment projects on behalf of several Italian administrations. Salottobuono relies on the collaboration of a network of specialists for the development of all phases of the project in its structural, plant engineering, economic and site management aspects. It also collaborates with consultants on landscape and environmental sustainability issues.

 

Matteo Ghidoni obtained his Master Degree in architecture at IUAV Faculty of Architecture in Venice in 2002. He was a founding partner of the research agency Multiplicity from 2002 to 2006. His work with Multiplicity was exhibited at Kunstwerke in Berlin (2003), the Venice Biennale (2003), the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris (2003), the ZKM in Karlsruhe (2004) and the Beijing Biennial (2004).

 

Ghidoni founded the architectural office Salottobuono in 2007. Salottobuono has served as editor of the Instructions and Manuals section of Abitare magazine
(2007-10) and as creative director of Domus magazine (2011, 2012). The office has taken part in the Venice Biennale (2008, 2012, 2014), and designed the Italian Pavilion in 2010. Salottobuono published the Manual of Decolonization (2010) and Fundamental Acts (2016).

 

Matteo Ghidoni is currently Visiting Lecturer at the MIT Department of Architecture and Adjunct Professor at Politecnico in Milan. He taught design studios at the Faculty of Architecture in Genova, at IUAV Faculty of Architecture in Venice, the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotà. He has given guest lectures at several schools and institutions including the Berlage Institute, Berkeley, TU Wien, Vlaams Architectuurinstituut in Antwerp, Columbia University and USoA Miami. He has been studio leader at the Venice Studio organized by the Melbourne School of Architecture and at the Porto Academy hosted at FAUP.

 

In 2014 he was invited by Rem Koolhaas, director of the Venice Biennale, to participate in the Monditalia section with the research project Ground Floor Crisis. Among the recent projects designed and built by Ghidoni there are the winning proposal for a temporary restaurant for the 25th Biennale Interieur in Kortrjik, Belgium (2016), the pavilion for the Mèxtropoli Festival in Mexico City (2017), the e-flux pavilion for the Milano ArchWeek (2018), the new Urban Center for the city of Milan (2019) and the new addition to the Venice Casino in Ca’ Noghera (2020). His project for the market square of Sant’Agostino (Ferrara), designed in collaboration with Enrico Dusi and completed in 2020, has been awarded the prestigious Gubbio Prize as the best national intervention on an area of historical interest.

 

Since 2010, Ghidoni has been co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of San Rocco, an independent international publication about architecture. The editors of San Rocco were received the Icon Award in 2012 as the best emerging architecture practice. In 2012 and 2013, the magazine was awarded two grants from the Graham Foundation.