Book Description

Milan, since the period after World War II, has developed its own specific interpretation of modern architecture: a Milanese path to architectural Modernity. In model suburban developments like QT8 (a proving ground for the best solutions formulated by international architectural culture in the 1920s and 1930s), but also in original buildings in the center, like the Torre Velasca and the Pirelli skyscraper, Milan has become a true outdoor museum of modern architecture. The names of the leading figures of this period are Gio Ponti, Piero Bottoni, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Ignazio Gardella, Luigi Moretti, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Vico Magistretti; as well as Vittorio Gregotti, Aldo Rossi, Guido Canella, Carlo Aymonino, Gino Valle, Gabetti & Isola: architects that over a few decades gave Milan its building-symbols, providing structures suitable for a city aspiring to a role as a leading player on the European stage. The works of these architects have been joined, in the late 20th century and the initial years of the new millennium, in a period of renewed construction activity, by projects bearing the world-famous signatures of Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Arata Isozaki, Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas, along with those of Italian talents like - among others - Renzo Piano, Cino Zucchi and Stefano Boeri. A significant contribution that has given Milan an important position on the international architecture scene, destined to be reinforced by EXPO 2015. This book takes a critical look at the various aspects of development of Milanese architecture, and in 100 profiles illustrated with photographs made for the occasion it presents the city's most outstanding buildings erected over the course of the last seventy years.