Giulio Minoletti. The spectacle of architecture

edited by Maria Cristina Loi, Christian Sumi and Annalisa Viati Navone

This volume investigates the production of Giulio Minoletti (1910-1981), the Milanese architect, urban planner and designer, following the different themes articulated in his works. Starting from his scientific and intellectual biography and his professional beginnings - characterised by a tendency to "absorb" procedures, figures, types of pictorial and graphic composition from other disciplinary fields, in particular art - the volume reconstructs Minoletti's position in the first post-war urban planning debate and his commitment to the modernisation of Milan's railway stations; his talent for working in delicate contexts, especially in the historical fabric of the city of Milan. Where he displays spatial sensitivity and mastery in dosing deference to the past and the search for new modern solutions, as in the Condominio a VIlle superimposed on the Giardini d'Arcadia; and his skill as a designer of living and exhibition spaces and 'architecture in motion' (including the famous ETR 300 - Settebello electric train and the BZ 308 aircraft).

A rich and complete volume, commissioned by the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio, to learn about an author who has been little explored and known up to now, but who is presented in this volume with an exceptional account of his works and his multifaceted activities, a rare and densely-expressed opportunity to approach one of the best authors of 20th-century Italian architecture.