piero portaluppi puts architecture on show during expo milan

piero portaluppi puts architecture on show during expo milan
(above) hellytown, 1926 (unrealized) / perspective sketch

portaluppi, architecture on show: from expo to milan
fondazione portaluppi – via morozzo della rocca 5, milan
on now until october 31, 2015

during expo milan 2015, an exhibition has opened dedicated to the works of piero portaluppi, an architect who was responsible for creating the italian pavilion at barcelona’s 1929 expo event. titled ‘portaluppi, architecture on show: from expo to milan’, the display brings together drawings, plans and photographs of the architect’s most spectacular and distinctive works, which left an indelible mark on milan from the 1920s to the 1960s.

impianto idroelettrico di crego, (1916-26)

presented by fondazione piero portaluppi, the exhibition continues the museum’s celebration of the architect’s life, after ‘leonardo’s vineyard’ – a scheme realized by the foundation – opened earlier this year. the display allows visitors to acquire a more in-depth knowledge of the architect who restored both casa degli atellani, and the church of santa maria delle grazie – two of milan’s most important renaissance buildings. the exhibition also includes some clips filmed by portaluppi himself, and the trailer of ‘l’amatore’, a film detailing the life of the architect which the foundation will distribute from september 2015.

study of the skyscraper – S.K.N.E. / new york (USA) – 1920
(unrealized) perspective, 1920

to understand more about piero portaluppi, designboom spoke with the exhibition’s curator alessandro scandurra, a practicing architect who, among other projects, designed the expo gates in milan’s city center.

designboom: which aspects piero portaluppi’s architecture do you particularly admire? 

alessandro scandurra: piero portaluppi is a complicated figure, following that culture of the historical continuity – typical of the milanese school that led BBPR to design torre velasca. he builds a very personal formal system of references, invents orders and archives a unique repertoire. between the end of beaux arts academies and the emergence of the modern movement, slightly late with respect of an epochal change, he realizes a crazed italian pavilion with flame decorations (at expo 1929), while mies was realizing his pavilion in barcelona.

palazzo della società buonarroti-carpaccio-giotto in via salvini, (1926-30)

DB: in what ways has portaluppi influenced your personal work? 

AS: I was curious about the themes of the repertoire and the graphic decorations that become three-dimensional objects: a strange balance between drawing and reality, and the ability to transform them into physical presences.

casa degli atellani in corso magenta, milan (1919-1921)

DB: did you find out anything particularly new or interesting about portaluppi while you were working on this exhibition?

AS: it is not the first exhibition that I have realized on portaluppi. the first was at triennale di milano in 2004 – an enormous exhibition where for the first time all his archive was shown. nevertheless, anytime I see the drawings he was realizing with no duty – abstract, ironic and imaginary visions – I see portaluppi as a disenchanted advancer of spectacular architecture, with all the contingency contradictions.

S.T.T.S., corso sempione, milan – 1926 (unrealized)
perspective drawing