Category: Events

In the space of Milan, Monday, June 26 on the occasion of the release of «Casabella» 946, June 2023, a meeting was held dedicated to the topicality of modern Milanese architecture, to the Milanese relational path between history and progress.
A city not as monumental as Milan, with a very dense fabric, has concentrated in its growth on the relevance of the background as an indispensable condition for the city. The choral quality of urban space is the result of a set of architectures, contemporary with each other or distant in time, that individually express their expressive energy but at the same time aspire, resonating together, to build an environmental unity.

Part of the CASABELLAlectures, the event moderated by Federico Tranfa was attended by Marco Biagi, professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Nicola Braghieri, associate professor at the EPFL of Lausanne, the designer and researcher Massimo Curzi and Angelo Lunati of Onsitestudio.

The designer, already a guest of Theatro, has indicated as fundamental the value of the relationship between things, rather than the value of things themselves. The special Milanese trajectory seems to be a powerful reference for the ability to provide an extraordinary laboratory built of urbanity and for the ability to still indicate the possibility of an antidogmatic and gentle way of modernity.

In a time of serious emergency for Emilia Romagna, Theatro has chosen to organize a charity initiative to raise funds for EMERGENCY projects for places affected by the flood.
The same territory was explored with a curious gaze by the documentary film “Openings: Looks Beyond the Limit” by Francesca Molteni and Mattia Colombo screened on 29 June 2023 at Theatro. The film tells the world of architectural elements that embody the concept of threshold, openness and the relationship between interior and exterior. Along the Via Emilia, the geographical threshold par excellence, an image of Emilia Romagna is outlined through portraits and testimonies of historical figures of the territory, by Alfonso Femia, Alvaro Siza and Cino Zucchi for architecture to others such as the photographer Guido Guidi – pioneer of the new Italian landscape photography -, the sportsmen Davide Cassani and Andrea Stella, the president of Emergency Rossella Miccio and the king of smooth Raoul Casadei.

Guest yesterday in Theatro the Foundation and Order of Architects PPC of Monza and Brianza for its annual meeting.

Within the evening, the intervention of two partner companies of Theatro, Schneider Electric and Daikin, focused on the person at the centre: comfort, wellness, health and interaction with spaces.

The goal is to design sustainable, resilient, hyper-efficient buildings, focused on people,
so as to maximize their comfort.

From 15 to 21 May, Theatro’s main partners were at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia at the Foro Italico in Rome. The Internazionali, Italy’s most important tennis tournament, gave partners and guest designers the unique experience of seeing matches from exclusive seats as well as an out-of-the-ordinary networking opportunity.

“As architects, we have a duty to explain and recognise the emotional role of architecture, because citizens feel an emotional involvement with the city and its buildings”. With these words David Chipperfield, guest speaker at Theatro on 2 December 2022, gave his vision of how architects should not only add value to society from the commercial point of view of buildings, but also work to increase their cultural value. This is his vision awarded the Pritzker Prize 2023, the most important prize in the world of architecture.
The elegance of his works derives from the sobriety with which they are imagined and designed and coincides with the functionality and accessibility of the spaces, particularly in the more complex interventions for recovery, redevelopment and transformation of the architecture of the past.

Also using stories to communicate in architecture. Maria Chiara Virgili, architect by training and author of the podcast Damned Architects, talked about how projects should follow the principles of narrative and communication to become memorable. The goal is to create exciting stories that engage the potential customer and generate a condition of trust.
In dialogue with Alvar Altissimo, he tackled some hot topics in architecture with a touch of irony, from Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House to The Simpsons. Because for Maria Chiara Virgili, good stories are never boring, but inspiring and at times, amusing.

City-workshop: at Theatro, on 24 October 2022, the guests were Carlos Moreno, creator of the 15-Minute City concept, and Jorge Pérez-Jaramillo, Colombian architect, urban planner and university professor, who engaged those present with the lecture ‘Medellín. Regeneration of the incomplete city’. The Colombian city case study tells of South American intensity and speed, very different from European ones. The growth of the city, founded in an area of water, flood plains and mountains, has characteristics that deserve to be known, with all of its opportunities, challenges and difficulties. Jorge Pérez-Jaramillo’s lesson reminds us that it is possible to dream, and it is necessary to act. Moreno’s reflection also invites multiple questions, such as in which city would we like to live? How does the city respond to people’s needs? What elements are needed to achieve a good quality of life, regardless of the density of the area we live in? These are complex issues that need to be talked about because they affect everyone. Carlos Moreno was inspired by Elinor Ostram, Nobel Prize winner for economics in 2009, who explained the concept of the common good based on a polycentric vision based on ecology, proximity, solidarity and empowerment.
A great little lesson to seed in any project.

Artist, Edoardo Tresoldi is famous for his environmental installations – veritable architectures – in which the transparency of the wire mesh dissolves boundaries and transcends the space-time dimension. At Theatro he shared his own personal research on the enhancement of the landscape, between art and the world, between matter and absence, and between light and shadow.

The dream of every architecture student, the Renzo Piano World Tour is an opportunity for education and study by travelling around the world to discover the architecture of Renzo Piano and other famous architects: it is made available tofour young graduates by the Renzo Piano Foundation together with other institutions. Among the stops on the tour: Emergency’s Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda, to which Theatro contributed expertise and passion.

Atypical because it was scheduled in June, instead of the normal month of April, and heartfelt because it was the first post-Covid, Milan Design Week 2022 lived up to all the expectations of operators, professionals and onlookers. Theatro’s partner companies were among the co-protagonists, in the halls of the fair and the bustling streets of the city.