La seconda natura: Paesaggi, elementi, architetture

The book is a collection of texts and essays written for scientific publications, conferences, lectures, and research projects. They clearly represent my interests and the topics I have dealt with in my research path over the years. The title "La Seconda Natura" (The Second Nature) is taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's book "Italian Journey," in which he compares architecture to a second nature, an artifact created with a civic purpose, useful to humanity. Similarly, I examine architecture, analyzing its basic elements which, through compositional tools and always in reference to built works, manifest as buildings, cities, and landscapes. These topics range from discussions on façade design and the use of rhetorical tools in the works of Modern Movement masters to the concept of "design-through-elements" in significant built works. The essays also delve into the architectural works of masters such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Mart Stam, and contemporary architects like Bolles+Wilson. Additionally, there are essays exploring larger scales such as urban and territorial contexts, such as the landscape—both natural and artificial—in the Veneto region and the contemporary landscape of disused harbor sites. The book also features a series of collages I created, often but not always in conjunction with the texts, to represent, illustrate, and describe specific architectural and compositional themes. This technique, which I have learned from figures such as Mies, Rodchenko, Superstudio, and Rem Koolhaas, proves to be a highly useful and powerful tool in my personal work. It helps materialize my visions and elucidate my architectural projects and thoughts.