As We Saw It – Part 7: Emotional Rome Streets, People, Architecture: A Personal Journey
Coming back to Rome is always emotional. It triggers pleasant memories of our days as students of architecture, of lifelong friendships, of great teachers, of great art, architecture, lifestyle.
To link the central theme of “As We Saw It,” ‘what makes a city great,’ with what we chose to document through film and photography, we focused on ‘the city’s emotional intelligence’ and its connection to our own emotions. To do that, we decided to record streets and piazzas rather than buildings, with few exceptions, such as the Pantheon, the MAXXI and the church of Sant’Andrea Della Valle.
View of Rome – Piazza di Spagna
Piazza navona
Campo De’ Fiori
Piazza Farnese
Piazza di Spagna
Pantheon
Michelangelo’s Campidoglio
Bernini’s The Rape of Prosperina
Bernini’s The Elephant and the Obelisk
Pasta
Campo De’ Fiori
Campo De’ Fiori
Campo De’ Fiori
Shop Window
Piazza
Street with Bridge
Green Facade
Reflection – Sant’Andrea della Valle
Selfie – Sant’Andrea della Valle
The Maghidovich – Trevi Fountain, 1956
Formative Past: Architecture and Cinema
We were “adopted” by Bruno Zevi soon after we joined his History of Architecture class. Besides tutoring our theses, he also invited us to his home to have lunch with Carlo Scarpa and connected us with Edgar Kaufmann Jr. in New York, who opened for us the gates of Wright’s Fallingwater.
Our relationship with Pellegrin was also unique. He co-tutored our theses, and we worked for him on important projects: many competitions for schools, the University of Barcelona, Goree Island’s master plan in Senegal, Palazzo Aldobrandini’s restoration in Rome, and research on futuristic habitats.
Professor Bruno Zevi – Photo: Elisabeth Catalano
Architect Luigi Pellegrin
-
- Some Books by Bruno Zevi
-
- Books by Bruno Zevi
Pellegrin’s House, 1964
Pellegrin’s House, 1964
Pellegrin and Soleri
Drawing – Luigi Pellegrin
Drawing – Luigi Pellegrin
Pellegrin and Rick, 1998
When we moved to Rome to continue our studies in architecture, going to the movies was an essential way of learning Italian fast. We were also lucky. In the vicinity of where we first lived, in the Parioli neighborhood, there was a cinema club at a church that showed every week movies followed by a Q&A with the directors. Among many others, we treasure having listened to Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City; Paisan; Stromboli ) and Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers; Kapò; Burn!)
After graduation, we moved to Rome’s Historic Center, minutes away from the Trevi Fountain and from Pellegrin’s studio. Our same-floor neighbor was Adriana Chiesa, who, at the time worked at La Medusa, one of Italy’s leading film distributors. We were friends when Adriana met and fell in love with cinematographer Carlo Di Palma (Divorce Italian Style, Red Desert, Blow-Up, Hanna and her Sisters, Radio Days.)
Carlo had a rich experience with directors like Michelangelo Antonioni (he shot Antonioni’s first color film, Red Desert) and with Woody Allen. He also worked for Bernardo Bertolucci, Lucchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Francesco Rosi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. I remember his comments about Igmar Bergman (“he worked like a scientist”) and about Federico Fellini (“a magician; he ‘hypnotized’ his actors, shooting without sound and talking to them while shooting.”)
Rossellini’s Rome, Open City
Film Posters
La Dolce Vita
Carlo Di Palma – Posters
Antonioni’s Red Desert
Monica Vitti
Carlo Di Palma, Adriana Chiesa Di Palma, Woody Allen
The MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo
Coincidentally with our visit, Zaha Hadid’s-designed MAXXI held two exhibitions that we wanted to see: one dedicated to Zevi’s 100th birthday, titled “Zevi’s Architects. History and Counter-History of Italian Architecture 1944-2000.” The other, “Tel Aviv the White City,” dedicated to the Bauhaus architecture in the city.
As a historian and critic of architecture, Zevi’s influence in Italy during the second half of the 20th Century was impacting. He published several pivotal books, such as Architecture as Space, The Language of Modern Architecture, A History of Modern Architecture, Erich Mendelsohn, was the editor of the magazine L’Architettura for over fifty years, taught history of architecture in Venice and in Rome, and was militant in the Radical Party, which he represented in the Chamber of Deputies from 1987 to 1992.
Zevi brought Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of Organic Architecture to the Italian peninsula, which influenced many architects, such as Carlo Scarpa, Luigi Pellegrin, Paolo Soleri, Marcello D’Olivo, Giovanni Michelucci and Aldo Loris Rossi, to name just a few.
The exhibition on Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus architecture, although very compact, provided an idea of the city’s rich past, which includes over 1500 buildings of the period.
MAXXI – Architect: Zaha Hadid
MAXXI – Ceiling
MAXXI – Lobby
MAXXI
MAXXI – Shop
MAXXI – Projection
MAXXI – Projection with collage
Asse Attrezzato – Model
Lucio Passarelli – Mixed Use
Italian Pavilion, Montreal, 1967
Italian Pavilion, Montreal 1967 – Plan
Arnaldo Pomodoro: Sphere within a Sphere
Bauhaus in tel Aviv Exhibition
Tel Aviv – Floor Aerial Photo
