Léa-Catherine Szacka

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse. It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse. It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

In the forty years since the first iteration of Venice Architecture Biennale, the field of architecture has seen a remarkable change in the role played by exhibition-making. While architecture and display have long been intertwined practices, a rapid proliferation of large-scale perennial exhibitions—particularly in the twenty-first century—has resulted in the biennial / triennial becoming an integral part of our discipline, a new geography of itinerant display that has profoundly altered the contours of architectural thought. Between format, space, and content, what are the various agencies and effects of these events? Biennials / Triennials asks these questions and others of a range of curatorial agents—including After Belonging Agency, Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Sarah Herda, Adrian Lahoud, Ippolito Pestellini, and Andre Tavares—and visits crucial sites of recent exhibitions that reveal what is at stake in the newfound ubiquity of the architectural –ennial.