L’ambiguo rapporto con il passato nell’opera di Paolo Mezzanotte: il caso dell’isolato di via Unione, Lupetta, Arcimboldi e Zebedia a Milano

By examining a project for an urban block in Milan by Paolo Mezzanotte (1967), the paper aims to recount the subtleties of the relationship between Ancient and New Architecture in the years close to the publication of the Venice Charter. The area, bordered by Unione, Lupetta, Arcimboldi, and Zebedia streets, contains the Sant’Alessandro Church, with the adjoining Collegio Arcimboldi and the post-war Palazzo Galleria Unione. Among these is a space whose origins can be traced back to the post-war reconstruction period. The project for the Riforma degli edifici del Collegio Arcimboldi, which was never built, reveals an ambiguous and arbitrary approach to the pre-existing buildings, subordinating architectural preservation principles to contingent aesthetic and functional needs. The reasons for this casualness from such an educated professional can be attributed to an old-fashioned restoration culture and the pervasive pressure of private owners.