Built experiences. History as a barometer of contemporaneity

Architecture is both a means and an end. Tending towards it al-lows the designer, and whoever takes part in the design activity, to make an ambitious attempt at defining an evolving entity. Deciding today what will be tomorrow – or, even, forever – is an extraordinary action that carries with it a high degree of responsibility: before being created, everything we see today in our built environment – public spaces, buildings, materials – were first of all imagined, and even dreamed. It is a question of accepting imagination as an instrument of creativity, as a primary element of evolution, allowing man to change and adapt to the spaces in which he lives. Dream, fore-sight, anticipation, invention, and creativity – in other words, the overcoming of the sensitive side of our existence – represent the highest expression of man’s responsibility towards the world. By definition, a designer’s imagination is akin to the ability to anticipate: the environment, the city, the habitat of man; the urban and non-urban landscape of the future; the transformations we can impose, and those we must endure.