With a small exhibition, introduced with a debate, the Fondazione dell’Ordine degli Architetti in Milan pays homage to Ignazio Gardella on Thursday 15 May at 21.15 at their offices in via Solferino 19.

Curator Franco Raggi, explains the spirit of the initiative, “... We thought it would be interesting to propose, as well as a discussion/reflection of Gardella’s work and its influence on architecture in the 20th century, a newer more analytical look at it by imposing two restrictions. One, to only illustrate work by Gardella in Milan, the city where he lived and worked, and two to do it in a systematic, homogeneous and synthesised way using only black and white photographs from the architect’s own archive (with one or two images of each piece). These two limitations give an identity and originality to a look which is clearly subjective but authentic in that the archived photographs already represent in themselves a critical selection of the work. The fact also that these images regard only work carried out in Milan raises the issue of Gardella’s relationship with the city, the scale of its architecture and that of the interiors of a number of homes of the bourgeois, including his own in which a free eclectic approach to the theme of living seems to come through, a long way off from militant rationalism...”.

Taking part in the debate will be Gardella’s son Jacopo, together with Stefano Guidarini, author of a recent monograph on Gardella published by Skira, and Antonio Monestiroli, author of a book-interview with the Milanese architect. The debate will be chaired by Enrico Morteo.

On show are photographs of his work in Milan, both the famous and less well known, along with a number of original drawings kept at the Centro Studi Archivio della Comunicazione in Parma.