Uno, Nessuno e Centomila: a Reflection on the Replica

Through three case studies, this reflection attempts to investigate the theme of the replica and the role of reinterpretation. Mario Botta’s San Carlino on the Lake of Lugano opens the reflection as part of an exhibition; it had to carry a new reading of the architectural fact, taken out of its time and context; thus came the choice of an unusual 1:1 maquette. Is the exact copy a mere replica, or is it a reinterpretation? Emblematic is the second version of Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion in Barcelona by de Solà-Morales, Ramos and Cirici, who declared that every replica is necessarily a reinterpretation. Every reconstruction is a project itself; not only ‘how it was’ but also ‘where it was’ was the subject of debate. The problem was not so different from the reconstruction of San Mark’s Tower in Venice after its collapse in 1902.