A farewell

editorial

Every trip is the best trip in the world. A journey isn't about how far or how long, nor the ‘wonders’, the masterpieces you might happen to see. A trip is primarily about the journey itself. It is a linear space, into which fall images, profiles, words, sounds, monuments and blades of grass, like a gap in the planet. You can travel ten thousand miles without having travelled; you can go for a walk, and the walk can become that gap, be a journey.

Giorgio Manganelli. 2005. La favola pitagorica. Luoghi italiani. Edited by Andrea Cortellessa. Milan: Piccola Biblioteca Adelphi, 523. [Own translation]

The Journal of Architectural Design and History has reached its second issue, but as the reader will gather throughout these pages, there have been more than just a few — even tumultuous — changes made to this young journal. Let's start with the easier news: our editorial team is expanding, and this fills us with joy and pride. The fact that young scholars are dedicating part of their time to an editorial undertaking of this kind is a strong signal of hope for the future. The darker notes, on the other hand, touch chords that we still struggle to deal with, with which the ADH Journal and the entire editorial team have had to grapple in recent months. The painful loss of our Director Prof. Federico Bucci (1959-2023), historian of architecture and Vice Rector of the regional campus in Mantova, marked a clear watershed in the journey that the editorial team embarked upon in 2021, the year that marked the start of the creation of this Journal. Federico Bucci, who throughout his career dedicated himself to teaching the History of Architecture and to the passionate and in-depth study of figures such as Albert Kahn, Luigi Moretti, Franco Albini and Renzo Piano, was the founder and driving force behind this project from day one. It was his desire to create an interdisciplinary journal of international scope; to him we owe the character and interest — not something to be taken for granted — in the work of younger generations: forms and methods that the editorial team has promised to maintain. Paraphrasing Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-1969), a master of the School of Milan whom he greatly admired, by adopting a perspective of “continuity”, we take on the responsibility of this state of permanence, with the awareness of having accepted modestly but with determination a legacy, taking charge of managing it with prudence and care. If, as Giorgio Manganelli reminds us, “A journey isn't about how far or how long,” the mark left by Federico Bucci in the long months creating the Journal remains for us a living memory and driving force of the objectives that we promise to achieve in the journal’s near future. To the bitter farewell to Federico, the past year has added another loss for the journal. The death of Anthony Vidler (1941-2023), a refined scholar and member of the scientific committee, whose research and publications, known throughout the world, contributed substantially to the rediscovery of the figure of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) and to the understanding of Late Enlightenment culture. 

 As a tribute, you will find in this new issue his lecture 'Architecture and Representation: Etching, Engraving, Painting', delivered during Mantovarchitettura 2020.

This first editorial, a joint effort by the three of us, is therefore both a farewell and a welcome. Full of gratitude and aware of the importance of this new role, we bid farewell to our Director and an important member of the Scientific Committee, and welcome the new future of the Journal of Architectural Design and History.

Significantly, this second issue of The Journal of Architectural Design and History is dedicated to the topic of destruction. This is obviously a broad theme that could be approached from many different perspectives. Destruction refers to the process and outcome of an event: every destruction, regardless of whether being voluntary or involuntary in nature, imposes a reflection on losses, things that have existed but ceased to exist, and forces us to make a value judgement about what we recognised as being part of our history and identity. A destructive event becomes very relevant for the social life of the collectivity that is subject to it, and its results can be materialised over time depending on several directions and different ways.

It is a topic that is strongly tied to contemporaneity and, at the same time, to the historical memory of different generations, which led to an unexpected response in terms of publication proposals. For this reason, after careful selection and reflection on the theme, we decided to make the topic of destruction the subject of a double issue of ADH. Issue 2, which you see published today, is dedicated to destruction as an event of war, sadly a very topical subject. The 8 essays published discuss the destruction of heritage by critically examining cases ranging from Bari and Berlin to Warsaw and Pakistan, analysing transversally the causes, effects and possible solutions to the problem of devastation. The permanent sections, by the editorial team, feature an essay in images composed of fragments of memories (‘Destruction into fragments’), exploring the various meanings of destruction, from natural devastation to the erasure and recreation of artistic memory. The Archive Essay presents two texts by Ignazio Gardella and Bruno Zevi, respectively read on Radio Milano in 1945 and on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) of New York in 1942, both informative and surprisingly relevant and communicative due to the radio broadcasting style of the excerpts.

The editors’ recommendations explore the topic of destruction through the volumes ‘Goodbye History, Hello Hamburger: An Anthology of Architectural Delights and Disasters’ by Ada Louise Huxtable (Preservation Press, 1986), the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Geschichte der Rekonstruktion – Konstruktion der Geschichte’ (Prestel Verlag, 2010), and the more recent “Brutalism as Found: Housing, Form and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens” by Nicholas Thoburn (Goldsmiths Press, 2022). The editors’ recommendations are concluded with the re-proposition of the significant yet poorly-known exhibition ‘Italia da Salvare’, inaugurated at the Palazzo Reale in Milan in 1967.

This issue features no apologia, despite the delicate topic addressed. On the contrary, it confirms — for us and hopefully for our readers — how a journal can still be a tool for honest investigation, critical analysis and research around issues that are rooted, profound and cross-cutting, but which contemporary times often re-present with new unexpected nuances, forcing us to think in new and original ways that enrich the journey.

Elisa Boeri

Elena Fioretto

Claudia Tinazzi