e188 | Riviste di architettura. Traiettorie

Michela Maguolo · Alberto Ferlenga · Daniele Pisani · Alberto Pireddu · Aldo Aymonino · Federico Bilò · Guido Morpurgo · Andrea Foffa · Cherubino Gambardella · Tim Steffen Altenhof · Eva Maria Froschauer · Riccardo Rapparini · Nicole Cappellari · Julien Correira · Paolo Carpi · Lamberto Amistadi · Enrico Prandi · Laura Camerlingo · Alessia Sala · Cesare Sartori

Jan 2022 · Edizioni Engramma

About this ebook

The present issue of “La Rivista di Engramma” is dedicated to the topic of the architecture journal, a sector that is in transformation, and the centre of ongoing debate. In the current historical moment – where digital platforms allow a sort of happy anarchy for unfiltered information about the architectural culture and each architect, studio or group can build the communication from their own experience in the professional field without great constraints of budget and time – what remains of the architecture journal? What is its goal: information, communication, architectural criticism or something else? What kind of problems do architecture journals face today? Have they accepted the challenge of the transition from paper to digital? If so, how? And what is the role of graphics in this transition? Has the digital revolution affected/influenced/improved the knowledge of architecture and its diffusion?

The issue is divided into three sections – Storie, Prospettive, Testimonianze (Stories, Perspectives, Testimonials)– introduced by Alberto Ferlenga’s essay, which proposes a parallel between two journals, David Gilly’s “Sammlung” and Ernesto Nathan Rogers’s “Casabella-Continuità”, belonging to different contexts and historical moments, but with similar aims. The section Storie opens with an essay by Daniele Pisani on the missed dialogue between the Italian architectural culture and the internationally acclaimed Brazilian architecture in the second half of the XX century. Alberto Pireddu recounts the story of the journal “A” by Lina Bo Bardi and Carlo Pagani; Aldo Aymonino and Federico Bilò propose an insight of “Zodiac”, its relationship with Adriano Olivetti and its international vocation; Guido Morpurgo’s article dwells on issues 0 and 1 of Vittorio Gregotti’s “Rassegna”; and Andrea Foffa describes the digital turn of a historical magazine, “The Architect’s Journal”. The second section, Prospettive, investigates possible futures in the development of the journals, starting with Cherubino Gambardella’s proposal for magazines like out-of-time collections; followed by Tim Steffen Altenhof identifies two essential ways to conceive of an architectural publication today: as a form of community, and as a school. Eva Maria Froschauer reflects on the timeliness of media relationships between architecture and journals, while Riccardo Rapparini applies the concept of Roberto Calasso and Cesare Garboli’s untimeliness to architectural journals. The third section, Testimonianze, collects contributions in the form of interviews, conversations and personal recollection: Nicole Cappellari and Julien Correira interview Jacques Lucan on the Tendency journals, Michela Maguolo interviews Sophie Lovell on the experimental magazine “uncube”, Paolo Carpi recalls the experience of “San Rocco”, Lamberto Amistadi ed Enrico Prandi tell the story of “Fam”, the first Italian web architectural journal recognized for excellence by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes; and Laura Camerlingo, Alessia Sala and Cesare Sartori describe the students’ editorial project “Terreno comune”.