The progressive resolution of the dichotomy between urban concentration and a more fluid territorial distribution, together with the search for identity through a new architecture projected towards the future, makes vertical construction in Italy a significant field for advancing the debate on the making of the city. During the first decades of the twentieth century, Italian architectural and cultural discourse, like its European counterpart, focused closely on the development of high-rise construction in the United States, adopting a position of critical observation rather than passive imitation. “The history of the skyscraper is the history of the relationship between formal research and structural experimentation, between technology and the architectural imagination that gave rise to this building type. In contemporary urban society, the skyscraper is one of the principal protagonists in the creation of the emotional dimension of anthropised space.” During the early decades of the twentieth century, the interpretation of the modern city as an organism developing vertically increasingly engaged Italian architectural culture. In close dialogue with the broader European context, attention focused on both the technological developments and the formal possibilities offered by American high-rise construction. Although verticality itself was by no means alien to European cities, where towers had formed part of the urban fabric since the Middle Ages, European architectural culture proved reluctant to assimilate the innovative characteristics of the modern high-rise building without critical reflection. The phenomenon therefore became an object of informed observation and reinterpretation rather than mechanical emulation. Commenting on the Torre Velasca, Manfredo Tafuri observed that it had been designed to teach people how to see. From this perspective, recalling Montesquieu’s words, the skyscraper becomes an instrument for achieving a comprehensive vision of the city. The hope is that it may continue to embody a modernity rich in meaning, founded on harmony between formal expression and technical innovation and on continuity between past and present, resisting any separation—while acknowledging their respective specificities—between the interpretation of the individual building and that of the city as a whole. The Torre Velasca, in its role as a “metropolitan building characterised by functional stratification”, and as the outcome of a Calvino-like “exactitude”, combines an interest in advanced technology with a pursuit of order, balance, and harmony in its vertical development. Such verticality can also be understood in the light of Vittoriano Viganò’s approach when, in 1961–62, he conceived his Verticale for Piazza Duomo in Milan as a tribute to his father Vico, to technology, and to its intrinsic truth: not a mere pursuit of height, but a “programmatically provisional” thrust towards overcoming constraints and making dreams possible. As Aurelio Cortesi states, the Velasca is “both a collective work and a gesture of belonging to the city; the Torre Velasca is a beginning: a work of art that encapsulates the past and organises the future.” A more extensive debate on strategies and methodologies for controlling, shaping, and guiding the evolution of the city should therefore involve all the disciplines concerned. In this respect, technology represents an essential instrument for translating the cultural and design intentions of an age characterised by increasing complexity into built form. Situated at the intersection of formal references and technological cross-fertilisation, vertical architecture today provides a compelling field in which to examine the tendencies and evolution of contemporary construction. The challenge is to restore identity and dignity to the high-rise building through a patient reading of history and its profound, critically informed reinterpretation.
La progressista soluzione del dicotomico enigma collocato tra concentrazione urbana e distribuzione fluida territoriale, e la risposta alle esigenze di identificazione in una nuova architettura proiettata al futuro, individua nel tema della costruzione verticale in Italia un'occasione significativa per alimentare il dibattito sulla costruzione della città: nei primi decenni del Novecento lo scenario architettonico e culturale italiano, al pari di quello europeo, perimetra l'attenzione sugli sviluppi delle costruzioni in altezza in America, divenendo luogo critico di osservazione, mai passivo seguace di meccaniche emulazioni. "La storia del grattacielo è la storia del confronto tra ricerca formale e sperimentazione strutturale, del rapporto tra tecnologia e immaginario che è all'origine di questo tipo edilizio. Nella società urbana contemporanea il grattacielo rappresenta uno dei principali protagonisti del processo di creazione di emozionalità dello spazio antropizzato". Nei primi decenni del Novecento, la lettura della città moderna quale organismo sviluppato in altezza coinvolge lo scenario architettonico e culturale italiano che, in simbiosi con quello europeo, focalizza l'attenzione sugli sviluppi tecnologici e le suggestioni formali delle costruzioni verticali derivanti dal contesto statunitense. Il tessuto delle città europee, sebbene non refrattario alla verticalità in quanto tipo edilizio storicamente presente sin dai tempi medievali, esibisce una tenace resistenza a incorporare le innovative caratteristiche dell'edificio alto, identificando, su tale fenomeno, un ambito di osservazione colta e reinterpretazione critica più che di passiva emulazione. Manfredo Tafuri, commentando la Velasca, sottolinea che essa fu progettata per insegnare a vedere. Una prospettiva, come quella delle parole di Montesquieu, che fa del grattacielo uno strumento per una visione complessiva, nell'auspicio che continui a rappresentare il simbolo di una modernità florida di significati, fondato sull'armonia tra componente formale e componente tecnica e basato sulla continuità tra passato e presente, opponendosi alla divaricazione, pur nella capacità di cogliere le rispettive specificità, tra lettura dell'edificio e lettura della città. Quella Torre Velasco che, nel suo ruolo di "edificio da metropoli, a stratificazione funzionale", esito di calviniana "esattezza", senza rinunciare all'interesse per la tecnologia avanzata, esprime volontà d'ordine, di equilibrio, di armonia nella sua spinta verso la verticalità. Una verticalità intesa nella logica dell'insegnamento di Vittoriano Viganò, quando immagina la sua Verticale del 1961-62 in piazza Duomo a Milano, quale omaggio al padre Vico, alla tecnologia e alla sua verità: non una rincorsa all'altezza bensì una spinta "programmaticamente provvisoria" verso il superamento dei vincoli e la realizzazione dei sogni. La Velasca, afferma Aurelio Cortesi, è "un'opera collettiva e al tempo stesso un gesto d'appartenenza alla città; la torre Velasca è l'inizio: un'opera d'arte che riassume il passato e organizza il futuro". L'auspicio di un più approfondito dibattito sulle strategie e metodologie di controllo, evoluzione e forma della città dovranno interessare tutti gli ambiti disciplinari coinvolti: la tecnologia costituisce in tal senso uno strumento utile al dominio degli intendimenti culturali e progettuali di un'epoca ad elevata complessità. L'architettura verticale, collocata tra citazioni formali e contaminazioni tecnologiche, incorpora nel contesto attuale un attendibile tema di confronto delle tendenze e dello sviluppo della costruzione contemporanea, al fine di restituire all'edificio alto identità e dignità, in nome di una paziente lettura della storia e di una sua profonda e colta rivisitazione.
V come Velasca, V come Verticalità. Milano come osservatorio italiano
E. Faroldi
2025-01-01
Abstract
The progressive resolution of the dichotomy between urban concentration and a more fluid territorial distribution, together with the search for identity through a new architecture projected towards the future, makes vertical construction in Italy a significant field for advancing the debate on the making of the city. During the first decades of the twentieth century, Italian architectural and cultural discourse, like its European counterpart, focused closely on the development of high-rise construction in the United States, adopting a position of critical observation rather than passive imitation. “The history of the skyscraper is the history of the relationship between formal research and structural experimentation, between technology and the architectural imagination that gave rise to this building type. In contemporary urban society, the skyscraper is one of the principal protagonists in the creation of the emotional dimension of anthropised space.” During the early decades of the twentieth century, the interpretation of the modern city as an organism developing vertically increasingly engaged Italian architectural culture. In close dialogue with the broader European context, attention focused on both the technological developments and the formal possibilities offered by American high-rise construction. Although verticality itself was by no means alien to European cities, where towers had formed part of the urban fabric since the Middle Ages, European architectural culture proved reluctant to assimilate the innovative characteristics of the modern high-rise building without critical reflection. The phenomenon therefore became an object of informed observation and reinterpretation rather than mechanical emulation. Commenting on the Torre Velasca, Manfredo Tafuri observed that it had been designed to teach people how to see. From this perspective, recalling Montesquieu’s words, the skyscraper becomes an instrument for achieving a comprehensive vision of the city. The hope is that it may continue to embody a modernity rich in meaning, founded on harmony between formal expression and technical innovation and on continuity between past and present, resisting any separation—while acknowledging their respective specificities—between the interpretation of the individual building and that of the city as a whole. The Torre Velasca, in its role as a “metropolitan building characterised by functional stratification”, and as the outcome of a Calvino-like “exactitude”, combines an interest in advanced technology with a pursuit of order, balance, and harmony in its vertical development. Such verticality can also be understood in the light of Vittoriano Viganò’s approach when, in 1961–62, he conceived his Verticale for Piazza Duomo in Milan as a tribute to his father Vico, to technology, and to its intrinsic truth: not a mere pursuit of height, but a “programmatically provisional” thrust towards overcoming constraints and making dreams possible. As Aurelio Cortesi states, the Velasca is “both a collective work and a gesture of belonging to the city; the Torre Velasca is a beginning: a work of art that encapsulates the past and organises the future.” A more extensive debate on strategies and methodologies for controlling, shaping, and guiding the evolution of the city should therefore involve all the disciplines concerned. In this respect, technology represents an essential instrument for translating the cultural and design intentions of an age characterised by increasing complexity into built form. Situated at the intersection of formal references and technological cross-fertilisation, vertical architecture today provides a compelling field in which to examine the tendencies and evolution of contemporary construction. The challenge is to restore identity and dignity to the high-rise building through a patient reading of history and its profound, critically informed reinterpretation.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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