Papers by Rosa Sessa
Palladio, 2024
The article reconstructs the formative years of the American architect Michael Graves (1934-2015)... more The article reconstructs the formative years of the American architect Michael Graves (1934-2015), with a particular emphasis on his research experience in Italy as a recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome in 1960-1962. The analysis of Mediterranean references is consistent in his career and starts, indeed, from Graves’s first discoveries of Greek and Italian architecture in the context of a modernist education at the universities in Cincinnati and Harvard, up to the thoughtful selection and interpretation of architectural references and models during his Rome Prize in Italy.
Based on the analysis of unpublished archive materials and thanks to exclusive interviews and conversations with renowned scholars and collaborators of Graves, the ambition of the essay is to understand how Italian references are classified, interpreted, and manipulated by the architect. The analysis of a variety of graphic material produced during his Rome Prize – photographs, drawings, inks, etc. – would finally suggest possible keys to deciphering his work and his aesthetics.
Therefore, the final objective of the paper is to outline the crucial influence of Italian architectural culture on Graves’ methodology and compositional approach in order to acquire historiographical and critical tools that can guide a deeper and less prejudicial reading of his works.
La città palinsesto / The City as Palimpsest, 2020
«A Greene Country Towne». Gardens and Parks in Philadelphia, from Penn’s
Ideal Grid to the Waterf... more «A Greene Country Towne». Gardens and Parks in Philadelphia, from Penn’s
Ideal Grid to the Waterfront Renovation --
Since its very first descriptions, the nature of the New World has always been considered as a source of richness, as well as a menacing presence. To the first English settlers, all that remained to do was to subject the natural elements to their needs, ‘taming’ nature in the foundation of the new cities, as in the case of the ideal grid designed for Philadelphia by William Penn.
My paper investigates the history of Philadelphia, questioning its most emblematic green spaces, for a new and original reading of the city.
Op. Cit., 2023
The absence of exhibitions or publications on Italian modern architecture at the Museum of Modern... more The absence of exhibitions or publications on Italian modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art is evident still up to the Fifties. A gap that, in the temple of modern international architecture, can be explained in different ways, not least the ideological ostracism towards everything that had been built during the twenty years of Fascist dictatorship.
Before the 1950s, only one veiled, contemptuous reference is made to modern Italian architecture by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock in the 1932 exhibition. On that occasion, only one Italian building is retained worthy of being exhibited, the Electric House of the young Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini for the Exhibition of Monza of 1930, while in the catalog the curators explain the lack of other examples stating that: "In Italy [...] one truly modern architecture has just begun to appear".
Everything changed in 1954, when Ada Louise Huxtable, young historian and curator trained in New York, Rome and Milan, organized the first MoMA exhibition completely dedicated to the most recent Italian architecture, going even to face – with talent, and extraordinary ahead of time – the thorny issue of buildings erected in the country during fascism.
Digital Draw Connections, Representing Complexity and Contradiction in Landscape, 2021
The concept of “landscape” in the works of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, far from being ... more The concept of “landscape” in the works of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, far from being an ideological one, is strictly intertwined with its concrete use, physical perception and anthropological meaning. The two Philadelphian architects referred to that more often as “urban context”, implying not only its spatial qualities—such as scale and proportion—but also suggesting the spontaneous generation of relations—both material and immaterial—of the city. Through a selection of writings and buildings, my paper investigates the evolution of the reflections on urban landscape by Venturi and Scott Brown, from their earlier thoughts on the qualities of Italian cities, to the “survey” of the city of Las Vegas in the Sixties, and the resulting ways those ideas became interpreted and materialized in their architectural and urban projects.
Op.Cit., 2020
Women and Architecture. The Woman's Pavilion in Chicago
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This essay presents a contemporary crit... more Women and Architecture. The Woman's Pavilion in Chicago
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This essay presents a contemporary critique of the first pavilion built by a woman for an international exhibition: the Woman’s Pavilion designed by Sophia Hayden for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
This story of personal success and gender inequality is more actual than ever in the current, still challenging conditions of the female professionals involved in the fields of architecture.
La Città altra / The Other City -- Cirice Edizioni, 2018
The image of the “other” city: Learning from Las Vegas, or on the Necessity of an American Grand ... more The image of the “other” city: Learning from Las Vegas, or on the Necessity of an American Grand Tour -- Las Vegas – the “other” city par excellence even in the multifaceted American urban landscape – had never been a case study for architects and urban planners until 1968, when Scott Brown, Venturi, Izenour and their Yale students organized a study-trip to investigate the city and its dynamics. Through the comparison between different kinds of literature and new archival findings, the paper reconstructs the events behind the Las Vegas Studio, considered as the first step towards the publication in 1972 of Learning from Las Vegas.
'ANANKE, 2018
Through an analysis of new archival findings, this paper investigates the evolution in the percep... more Through an analysis of new archival findings, this paper investigates the evolution in the perception of Southern Italy by the architects of the American Academy in Rome, from its foundation in 1894 until the end of the 1950s. Concentrating on the travel experience of four leading American architects – Gordon Bunshaft, George Howe, Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi – I argue that their interpretation of the architecture of Southern Italy has played a prominent role in the definition of the architecture of the second post-war period not only in America but also around the world.
AN - Architetti Notizie, 2018
Italy in Hollywood - Catalogue of the Exhibition, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Florence, 2018
Foreword -- Italian references in California architecture: the Italianate Style and the Mediterra... more Foreword -- Italian references in California architecture: the Italianate Style and the Mediterranean Style -- Piacentini in California: the Italian Citadel at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, 1915
L'Italia a Hollywood - Catalogo della Mostra, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Firenze, 2018
Viaggi e soggiorni di primo Ottocento. Oltre Napoli, verso Amalfi e Sorrento, 2017
Americans in the Amalfi Coast. New Geographies for New Travelers
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Through an analysis of unpubli... more Americans in the Amalfi Coast. New Geographies for New Travelers
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Through an analysis of unpublished archival findings and historic documents from the 18th to the 20th centuries, this paper investigates the gradual discovery of the architecture and the landscape of the Amalfi Coast by American travelers. In particular, the paper underlines how the Mediterranean architecture of the region influenced the works of American architects, from Frank Miles Day to Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi.
Il quartiere borbonico di via Morelli e la Caserma della Vittoria, 2017
VIII Congresso AISU - La città, il viaggio, il turismo - Collection of Papers, 2017
Collana Storia e iconografia dell'architettura, delle città e dei siti europei, 2 Direttore Alfre... more Collana Storia e iconografia dell'architettura, delle città e dei siti europei, 2 Direttore Alfredo BUCCARO Comitato scientifico internazionale Aldo AVETA La città, il viaggio, il turismo Percezione, produzione e trasformazione a cura di Gemma BELLI, Francesca CAPANO, Maria Ines PASCARIELLO contributo alla curatela: Marco DE NAPOLI, Carla FERNÁNDEZ MARTINEZ, Alessandra VEROPALUMBO
Liberty in Italia. Artisti alla ricerca del Moderno, 2016
Liberty in Italia. Artisti alla ricerca del Moderno, 2016
284 schede delle opere dietro, vera e propria protagonista dell'opera e l'unica resa nella sua tr... more 284 schede delle opere dietro, vera e propria protagonista dell'opera e l'unica resa nella sua tridimensionalità, a differenza delle figure più schiacciate del secondo piano. La tipologia utilizzata per Giuditta è poi riutilizzate da Moroni quasi identica nella Primavera per le Quattro stagioni e nell'ex libris per Diego Pettinelli. Simili sono infine anche le pose di Eva e delle figure realizzate per illustrare i Canti di Mèlitta di Giuseppe Lipparini.
IL SEGNO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI NAZIONALI E INTERNAZIONALI NELLA MEMORIA STORICA DELLE CITTÀ PADIGLIONI ALIMENTARI E SEGNI URBANI PERMANENTI, 2015
Marcello Piacentini and the Myth of the Italian City in America. The Italian Village at the Panam... more Marcello Piacentini and the Myth of the Italian City in America. The Italian Village at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915
When Marcello Piacentini was invited to design the Italian Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, it was already the third time he had been appointed as the architect for a national area at an international exposition. He had previously built the Italian Pavilion in Bruxelles in 1910 and a number of buildings at the International Exposition in Rome in 1911. In San Francisco, however, Piacentini was called upon for a much wider project, a sort of
‘urban’ plan over an area of 15,000 square metres. The resulting Cittadella Italiana (The Italian Town) represented Italy not only through works of art and other
production, but also through its very specific architectural and urban features.
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was an opportunity for economic and urban rebirth for San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906. Albeit a collection of temporary buildings, Piacentini’s project marks an important step forward in the phenomenon of assimilation and permanence of the legend of Italy – and in particular the Italian city – in San Francisco and in America.
La ricerca che cambia. Atti del primo convegno nazionale dei dottorati italiani dell’architettura, della pianificazione e del design - Università Iuav di Venezia 19-20/11/2014
Prima edizione italiana Novembre 2015 © LetteraVentidue Edizioni © Testi e immagini: i rispettivi... more Prima edizione italiana Novembre 2015 © LetteraVentidue Edizioni © Testi e immagini: i rispettivi autori I testi alle pagine 93, 183, 272, 361, 454, 531, 598, 683, 770, 854 sono di Lorenzo Fabian e Mauro Marzo Questo ebook contiene materiale protetto da copyright e non può essere copiato, riprodotto, trasferito, distribuito, noleggiato, licenziato o trasmesso in pubblico, o utilizzato in alcun altro modo ad eccezione di quanto è stato specificamente autorizzato dall'editore, ai termini e alle condizioni alle quali è stato acquistato o da quanto esplicitamente previsto dalla legge applicabile. Qualsiasi distribuzione o fruizione non autorizzata di questo testo così come l'alterazione delle informazioni elettroniche sul regime dei diritti costituisce una violazione dei diritti dell'editore e dell'autore e sarà sanzionata civilmente e penalmente secondo quanto previsto dalla Legge 633/1941 e successive modifiche. Questo ebook non potrà in alcun modo essere oggetto di scambio, commercio, prestito, rivendita, acquisto rateale o altrimenti diffuso senza il preventivo consenso scritto dell'editore. In caso di consenso, tale ebook non potrà avere alcuna forma diversa da quella in cui l'opera è stata pubblicata e le condizioni incluse alla presente dovranno essere imposte anche al fruitore successivo.
Design, technologies and innovation in cultural heritage enhancement
The book has been subjected to blind peer review.
Thesis Chapters by Rosa Sessa
Ph.D. Dissertation in History of Architecture, 2017
Official historiography about Venturi begins with his Mother’s House, completed in 1964, and Comp... more Official historiography about Venturi begins with his Mother’s House, completed in 1964, and Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, published in 1966. My Ph.D. dissertation argues that in order to gain a wider perspective on Venturi’s work, we should shift our focus from the 1960s to the mid-40s. Therefore, my work investigates projects from his early years, beginning in 1944, the date when Venturi enrolls at the Princeton University. From this specific viewpoint, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture turns into the final outcome of his first twenty years of research on historic architecture and Italian urban context.
in "By Meas of Rome. Robert Venturi prima del Post Modern, 1944-1966", Ph.D. Dissertation, 2017
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Papers by Rosa Sessa
Based on the analysis of unpublished archive materials and thanks to exclusive interviews and conversations with renowned scholars and collaborators of Graves, the ambition of the essay is to understand how Italian references are classified, interpreted, and manipulated by the architect. The analysis of a variety of graphic material produced during his Rome Prize – photographs, drawings, inks, etc. – would finally suggest possible keys to deciphering his work and his aesthetics.
Therefore, the final objective of the paper is to outline the crucial influence of Italian architectural culture on Graves’ methodology and compositional approach in order to acquire historiographical and critical tools that can guide a deeper and less prejudicial reading of his works.
Ideal Grid to the Waterfront Renovation --
Since its very first descriptions, the nature of the New World has always been considered as a source of richness, as well as a menacing presence. To the first English settlers, all that remained to do was to subject the natural elements to their needs, ‘taming’ nature in the foundation of the new cities, as in the case of the ideal grid designed for Philadelphia by William Penn.
My paper investigates the history of Philadelphia, questioning its most emblematic green spaces, for a new and original reading of the city.
Before the 1950s, only one veiled, contemptuous reference is made to modern Italian architecture by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock in the 1932 exhibition. On that occasion, only one Italian building is retained worthy of being exhibited, the Electric House of the young Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini for the Exhibition of Monza of 1930, while in the catalog the curators explain the lack of other examples stating that: "In Italy [...] one truly modern architecture has just begun to appear".
Everything changed in 1954, when Ada Louise Huxtable, young historian and curator trained in New York, Rome and Milan, organized the first MoMA exhibition completely dedicated to the most recent Italian architecture, going even to face – with talent, and extraordinary ahead of time – the thorny issue of buildings erected in the country during fascism.
-
This essay presents a contemporary critique of the first pavilion built by a woman for an international exhibition: the Woman’s Pavilion designed by Sophia Hayden for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
This story of personal success and gender inequality is more actual than ever in the current, still challenging conditions of the female professionals involved in the fields of architecture.
-
Through an analysis of unpublished archival findings and historic documents from the 18th to the 20th centuries, this paper investigates the gradual discovery of the architecture and the landscape of the Amalfi Coast by American travelers. In particular, the paper underlines how the Mediterranean architecture of the region influenced the works of American architects, from Frank Miles Day to Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi.
When Marcello Piacentini was invited to design the Italian Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, it was already the third time he had been appointed as the architect for a national area at an international exposition. He had previously built the Italian Pavilion in Bruxelles in 1910 and a number of buildings at the International Exposition in Rome in 1911. In San Francisco, however, Piacentini was called upon for a much wider project, a sort of
‘urban’ plan over an area of 15,000 square metres. The resulting Cittadella Italiana (The Italian Town) represented Italy not only through works of art and other
production, but also through its very specific architectural and urban features.
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was an opportunity for economic and urban rebirth for San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906. Albeit a collection of temporary buildings, Piacentini’s project marks an important step forward in the phenomenon of assimilation and permanence of the legend of Italy – and in particular the Italian city – in San Francisco and in America.
Thesis Chapters by Rosa Sessa
Based on the analysis of unpublished archive materials and thanks to exclusive interviews and conversations with renowned scholars and collaborators of Graves, the ambition of the essay is to understand how Italian references are classified, interpreted, and manipulated by the architect. The analysis of a variety of graphic material produced during his Rome Prize – photographs, drawings, inks, etc. – would finally suggest possible keys to deciphering his work and his aesthetics.
Therefore, the final objective of the paper is to outline the crucial influence of Italian architectural culture on Graves’ methodology and compositional approach in order to acquire historiographical and critical tools that can guide a deeper and less prejudicial reading of his works.
Ideal Grid to the Waterfront Renovation --
Since its very first descriptions, the nature of the New World has always been considered as a source of richness, as well as a menacing presence. To the first English settlers, all that remained to do was to subject the natural elements to their needs, ‘taming’ nature in the foundation of the new cities, as in the case of the ideal grid designed for Philadelphia by William Penn.
My paper investigates the history of Philadelphia, questioning its most emblematic green spaces, for a new and original reading of the city.
Before the 1950s, only one veiled, contemptuous reference is made to modern Italian architecture by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock in the 1932 exhibition. On that occasion, only one Italian building is retained worthy of being exhibited, the Electric House of the young Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini for the Exhibition of Monza of 1930, while in the catalog the curators explain the lack of other examples stating that: "In Italy [...] one truly modern architecture has just begun to appear".
Everything changed in 1954, when Ada Louise Huxtable, young historian and curator trained in New York, Rome and Milan, organized the first MoMA exhibition completely dedicated to the most recent Italian architecture, going even to face – with talent, and extraordinary ahead of time – the thorny issue of buildings erected in the country during fascism.
-
This essay presents a contemporary critique of the first pavilion built by a woman for an international exhibition: the Woman’s Pavilion designed by Sophia Hayden for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
This story of personal success and gender inequality is more actual than ever in the current, still challenging conditions of the female professionals involved in the fields of architecture.
-
Through an analysis of unpublished archival findings and historic documents from the 18th to the 20th centuries, this paper investigates the gradual discovery of the architecture and the landscape of the Amalfi Coast by American travelers. In particular, the paper underlines how the Mediterranean architecture of the region influenced the works of American architects, from Frank Miles Day to Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi.
When Marcello Piacentini was invited to design the Italian Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, it was already the third time he had been appointed as the architect for a national area at an international exposition. He had previously built the Italian Pavilion in Bruxelles in 1910 and a number of buildings at the International Exposition in Rome in 1911. In San Francisco, however, Piacentini was called upon for a much wider project, a sort of
‘urban’ plan over an area of 15,000 square metres. The resulting Cittadella Italiana (The Italian Town) represented Italy not only through works of art and other
production, but also through its very specific architectural and urban features.
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was an opportunity for economic and urban rebirth for San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906. Albeit a collection of temporary buildings, Piacentini’s project marks an important step forward in the phenomenon of assimilation and permanence of the legend of Italy – and in particular the Italian city – in San Francisco and in America.
TIMETABLE
• Launch of the Call: May 12th, 2022
• Abstract submission deadline: extended to June 20th, 2022
• Notification of acceptance: June 27th, 2022
• Text delivery for peer review: September 5th, 2022
• Notification of full-text peer review outcome: October 3rd, 2022
• Final text delivery: November 7th, 2022
The book consists of four thematic sections: the first, Territory and landscape, deals with the activity of the association as a vanguard not only for the discovery, knowledge, and divulgation of the national cultural heritage, but also for the development of Italian legislation related to nature and landscape. The second, A role in the country, investigates the civil commitment of the association for the first and second post-war reconstruction. The third, Images and visual languages, reflects on the role of TCI graphics for the knowledge of the territory. The fourth, The Words of Touring, reconstructs the role of magazines and guides for the new narratives on the landscape proposed by the Italian Touring. The volume closes with two testimonies from Touring, one on the role of the regional consuls and the other on the activities of the association's Study Centre in Milan.
The rich iconographic apparatus of the book is the result of the generous collaboration of the Touring Club Italiano, and its archives and Centro Studi, with the editors and the authors of the volume.
The volume is the result of the fruitful exchange of the papers presented during the conference L'Italia del Touring held in Naples in November 2019 on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Touring Club Italiano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz7NI7c_R9g ---
The projects and publications by Denise Scott Brown, often designed together with her colleague and partner Robert Venturi, were able to change the history of architecture of the past 70 years, providing innovative, provocative, and refreshing points of view on the city and the world that surrounds us.
In this interview, Denise Scott Brown discusses her mentors, the significance of the places that she visited in her formative years, the role of Italian cities and landscapes throughout her career, the way she teaches, and the reasons why she takes photos. Her words, thanks to the medium of the video, resound with all of her energy, passion, and devotion to her work.
Buon compleanno. Viva Denise!
______
The interview was shot in Philadelphia on November 28, 2023.
The video interview was written and hosted by Rosa Sessa and filmed and edited by Tim Tiebout.
Rosa Sessa is a post-doc researcher in the History of Architecture at the University of Napoli Federico II, Italy.
Tim Tiebout is a photographer and video maker based in Philadelphia and Washington, USA.
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