Description:
Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge - history, politics and media - in the making of postmodern architectural discourse.
It explores how Portoghesi's personal "postmodern project" was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi's most significant architectural projects - including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975-95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) - and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.Brief description: Silvia Micheli is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Review Quotes: "Micheli and Szacka's book provides both an ideal point of entry and an insightfully useful framing of this indispensable figure in late twentieth century architecture. They extend an invitation to peer behind Portoghesi's seductive photography, the Strada Novissma's colourful facades, fantasies projected by stage-set domestic interiors, and his ambitions to gather a more complex world under the domes of Rome." --Fabrications