Who is Gardella?

Abstract

We are in 1939 and the 2nd World War is about to start. A young civil engineer, 34 years old, Milanese, called Ignazio Gardella, from a Genovese family where the profession of architect and engineer has been a constant during four generations, walks the streets of Stockholm with his friend Giuseppe. There is no doubt that he is an example of the Italian Rationalism after the projects he had constructed until that moment. The Gruppo 7 manifestos sure have been an influence to him. But, who is Gardella and why is he so important? We observe 20 years of his professional life and we end up with quite a bit of perplexity. Some of his works are absolutely indisputable, others are easy to identify by their values and a minority of them deserve a quick view, maybe thinking that a master can be sometimes wrong. If we take a look to images coming from Michelangelo´s Antonioni films, we find surprising analogies with Gardellas work. Here the reader is invited to watch this game of images to understand how close the margins of culture were at that time.