Contemporary taste seems to have a certain inclination to condemn formal research pushed through imaginative concretions. When the project doesn’t move towards directions devoid of that responsible hysteria, which loads architectural expression with superstructures alien to the concepts of form and impose on it the need to have another meaning besides that of space construction, architecture is flattened into a single expressive register.
It could be sad that if today’s taste swings between the poles of ecological derivation and minimalism, the broad spectrum of possibilities – which exceeds these two extremes – is an attack on “good taste” and, therefore, configures itself as a kitsch construction. I don’t believe that this is enough to circumstantiate the possibility of kitsch in architecture because I’m convinced that it has an elusive definition, more traceable in the optical sensitivity of the viewer than in the object itself. Therefore, assuming that kitsch has to do with the crime of decoration without justifications connected to the increase in intrinsic quality or meaning of the object, I would like to try to practice, in composition, an attitude towards unjustified decoration as a form of democratic openness to every possible architectural manifestation.
In such circumstances, the emphasis of figurativeness is the purpose of a prevailing formal variation, which can start from the geometric fact as an assumption, to proceed to its stratification through calculated sign variations. Pursuing this approach without the fear of incurring in figural disproportions seems to me an excellent antidote to abstraction because the loss of contact with the entities surrounding the project, due to the hypnotic concentration on what is being put into play, doesn’t always bode well for architecture.
Think about how dark the season of the last Italian postmodernism is considered: in this way, someone can immediately realize how dangerous abstraction can be. Yet the metaphysical power of projects, such as the Piazze di Gibellina by Franco Purini, makes one’s pulse race, especially for the extreme beauty put into play in its failure.
I am not sure of the reasons that may have led to such a conjuncture, but I believe that the empiricism deployed for that type of design action can provide those who look at it with a different awareness, a new lesson, which invokes figurativeness to devalue the alienation of abstraction.
The project can therefore allow itself a good dose of empiricism to train the designer’s optical sensitivity and lead him to unexplored paths. The outcome won’t always be a success, but with each attempt, the designer can adjust the direction of his path in search of the right figural emphasis. This is an operational mode that seems useful to me also to exorcise the monster of virtual anticipation of architecture that leads, through the use of software for complex project management, to produce highly articulated models: almost as if in a single file without body, all the multiplicity of built space could be contained.
So, at the risk of seeming outdated, allow me to work on the purity of formal research in the project, pursuing a vehement dream dominated by a profoundly geometric chiaroscuro universe.
In the images, it’s shown one of the attempts with which I tried to decorate the context, in which the specific project is inserted, with almost ephemeral elements that, suspended in the form of two coloured ribbons, draw new perspectives for the place.
This is the project for the redevelopment of Piazza Municipio and Piazza San Francesco in Cancello ed Arnone, in which I worked on the figural emphasis of public space through a light, reversible, and economically sustainable system. Based on the development of a basic module one hundred and fifty centimetres long and of variable height, the construction system is made of metallic tubular profiles and sheet metal, fixed on a masonry base. The organism – infinitely repeatable – is designed to accommodate a seat, a shading canopy, and devices for public lighting. The resulting urban furnishings unfold in the squares by tracing their outline and determining very flexible “interiors” despite the static nature of their form.
Finally, at the center of Piazza Municipio, a luminous crown is a harmonious case ready to accommodate the monument to the fallen or, more simply, is arranged to be a luminous focal point to support the perimeter structure.
Each element deployed in the project operates with small geometric variations in height or width, at the cost of appearing askew in the eyes of some observers, to achieve a changing figural arrangement at every step.
Project Details
Title: Competition project for the redevelopment of Piazza Municipio and Piazza San Francesco in the municipality of Cancello ed Arnone (CE).
Authors: Luigi Arcopinto with Vincenzo Franzese, Augusto Oliva, and Armando Perfetto
Year: 2023
Recognitions: honorable mention
Author
Luigi Arcopinto is an architect, PhD in Architecture. Theories and Design. He conducts his compositional research in an attempt to define an approach to architecture that operates with a two-dimensional compendium aimed at adapting the design process to the context, the requirements of formal expression, and dialogue with the client. His particular chiaroscuro interest in the use of shadow as a design material is the means through which he tries to emphasize the expressive traits of the constructed and drawn sign. In his studio in Naples, he is involved in architectural design at all scales, industrial design, and communication. His projects, essays, and articles are published in various books and industry magazines, and since 2021, he has been an editor and web developer for the Class A scientific journal “Dromos.”