Silvia Micheli - Böcker

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse.It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse.It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

The book departs from a reflection on contemporary issues of environmental and social sustainability. With buildings and cities being one of the primary accelerators of climate change, the tightening of urban environments is one of the mechanisms by which architects and urban planners can affect change. To date, models of urban densification and compact cities have been focused on sites of urban consumption — residential, commercial, civic and social spaces. Little thought has been given to the vast productive hinterlands around the world that support cities, through the growing of food, generation of power, production of goods and disposal of waste.Working through three scales of analysis, across three cities in the Asia Pacific Region, and deploying varying design research techniques ranging from critical observation to speculative scenario modelling, the book presents a series of projects that seek to retro-fit an existing urban environment with a productive program.The purpose of this project is to describe a series of models for the folding of production into our cities, with ambition of consolidating all components of human inhabitation within a smaller overall physical and environmental footprint.

This book demonstrates that the much-needed global shift in energy production and use must happen at a territorial level in order to be truly successful and sustainable. This book enables regional implementation efforts by connecting broad EU environmental policies with plans for action at the territorial level, analysing efficient resource allocation and cost effectiveness to achieve national objectives. Each EU Member State is considered in depth, in order to identify the opportunities and challenges of this regional approach. The regional dimension of the authors’ analysis refers to the territorial level NUTS 1 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) that, starting from the administrative borders of the EU countries, divides the territory into 97 regions on the basis of major socio-economic characteristics. Because the model of the EU "green economy" is characterized typically by top-down interventions that focus exclusively on the resource productivity and investment business, its practical implementation can be de-railed. This book provides the pivotal missing piece- the detailed territorial comparative analysis necessary to obtain an optimal energy mix of renewable energy sources (RES), energy conservation and energy efficiency characteristics of each specific local context.