Dissident Florence

From dormant city to radical domain

​

REIA #11-12 (European Magazine of Architectural Research) (pp.185-201). Blind peer reviewed. Universidad Europea de Madrid. ISSN: 2340-9851. September 2018.

​

Between 1966 and 1967 a small group of young architects recently graduated in the Faculty of Architecture of Florence staged in two acts planned in the cities of Pistoia and Modena the Superarchitettura exhibition, and unknowingly they were inaugurating an intense period of architectural experimentation that will go across Italy for the following 10 years.

Both events also involve the simultaneous birth of Archizoom and Superstudio, two of the most influential groups of Italian experimental architecture subsequently labeled by Germano Celant as "Radical", whose protagonists shared their strong commitment with a particular existential crusade by which they sought, if not change the world, at least reconstruct a discipline considered more concerned with perpetuating a profession than reflecting on their own foundations.

The article traces the reasons why, during the first half of the 60’s, the Florentine School abandons its provincial status preserved by the most conservative forces in the city, to become the driving force behind the change. The University as the stage and Politics as a trigger will be the key ingredients for reaction.

Key words: Superarchitettura, Operaismo, Politics, Radical Architecture, Leonardo Savioli, Umberto Eco.