Architects Franco Purini and Laura
Thermes answer five questions about
current issues involving the landscape, the
city, and architecture.
When an architect designs a building in
a historic city centre, he can choose to
operate in three diff erent ways: either
dialogue with the context, as seen for
example in Vittorio Gregotti’s Bicocca
in Milan or Giorgio Grassi’s residential
building along Köthenerstrasse in Berlin,
or seek dissonance with the environment
like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum
in Bilbao or remain neutral. According
to Franco Purini the state of emergency
of Italian landscape will have to be
addressed urgently in coming years, and
will require signifi cant restoration work.
The timing and modes of this work will
be determined by the contemporary
dynamics. In the relationship between
innovation and tradition, innovation
should always prevail and tradition should
have a suggestive role. According to Laura
Thermes the new defi nes the meaning of
the ancient and not the opposite. Today
architecture, divided into three parts
historically (fi rmitas, utilitas, venustas) and
communication, must fi nd a unity that will
restore its organic nature