How and why to end ideological teaching if we care about future generations
In his urban regeneration projects for the Rome’s Corviale & Palermo’s ZEN neighbourhoods, and many other urban regeneration projects developed with his students, Ettore Maria Mazzola was able to demonstrate that, by simply taking back in hand the extraordinary urban, economic, social, political and environmental lessons inherited from the 1908-1926 Rome, those can constitute a really valuable inheritance to be bequeathed to the next generations, in all aspects.
Not only the socio-urban-architectural-economic lesson of those years is fundamental for an inheritable future, but also the techniques and building materials used by designers and builders of the time, i.e. those reported in the extraordinary handbooks of Carlo Formenti dated 1909.
In this TAG Talk, Ettore Maria Mazzola will show us how to apply that extraordinary lesson from our recent past to achieve a better future, demonstrating that, the lesson, properly adapted to the current needs, can be considered internationally valid, not only for Italy.
In fact, unlike a post-enlightenment or "modern-technicist" approach, we cannot think of having an universal solution for the whole planet, but only valid general rules, that have always to be applied in accordance with the local customs and traditions.
There is a necessity to recover the 'sense of belonging’ or better said, the respect for the ‘genius loci’, meaning that the problem must be approached using a methodology, as a flexible instrument to be adapted case-by-case, to each of the different situations encountered. Prof. Mazzola will share with us this methodology that he developed and it’s teaching to his graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.
Prof. Arch. Ettore Maria Mazzola is an architect, urbanist, restorer, painter and author of several essays and books.
Vice President of A.U.T. (Architettura e Urbanistica Tradizionale), Member of the Committee for Urbanism of Italia Nostra; Member of the INTBAU, member of the Board of Making Cities Livable, member of the Cultural Institute “Gruppo dei Romanisti”. In 2006 he has been Member of the International Scientific Committee for The Venice Charter Revisited.
In addition to the numerous restoration projects implemented in Rome and urban/architectural projects developed in Italy, E. M. Mazzola has carried out several projects for new residences and primary/secondary schools in the Moscow Region, in collaboration with the architect Maxim Atayants.
His urban projects have been the recipients of several awards and/or honorable mentions.
In 2016 he has been invited by the UNESCO, as one of the 500 international personalities called for giving suggestions, thoughts and sketches for the reconstruction in Syria.
Tickets and more information via this link.
Free for members, £5 plus booking fee for non-members.
