< Previous06 05 05 02 80 / 10STORIES OF COLLECTIVE HOUSING Chapter 2 In 1936 the open space between the pilotis on the ground floor was filled in with conventional dwellings which did not correspond to the types designed by Ginzburg. Later, a library was also installed in the set of ground floor rooms in residential block (01), to be exact on the south end. After Stalin died, a lift was built on the western facade of the south staircase.7 7. Victor Buchli. An Archaeology of Socialism. Berg, 2000. P 101, 168. URBAN FORM THE SOVIET RESIDENTIAL MODEL 4f02 03 05 04 01 05 THE SINKING OF THE SOCIAL CONDENSER 81 “Even in these initial steps we encounter a spirit of collectivism, a range of architectural scale that impels an austere and energetic expression.” MOISEI GINZBURG,1924.8 8. Moisei Ginzburg. Style and Epoch. MIT Press, 1982. P. 79. 01 RESIDENTIAL BLOCK 02 COMMUNAL FACILITIES 03 MILIUTIN PENTHOUSE 04 D UNITS 05 STAIRCASE 06 BRIDGE Pilo tis Ped estr ian link West side 2f 8f 6f04 150 / 10STORIES OF COLLECTIVE HOUSING THE ELEGANCE OF THE DISSIDENT In later life, Ignazio Gardella stated that he no longer believed in the relationship between reason and beauty but that he still believed in the relationship between beauty and truth and that truth is not attained by rational means alone.1 He maintained his scepticism regarding the rationalist standard -all that is useful is beautiful- and preferred to believe the opposite: all that is beautiful is useful. This clash of opinions is the key to his work and explains his position in the Italian panorama in the pre-war and in dialectical post-war years. At that time of manifestos and movements, while unbroken loyalties were being declared and politics and trends were being redefined, in a small city in the Piamonte region, world-famous for its hats, Gardella was building dwellings for the workers of the Borsalino factory. A modest construc- tion project with 32 dwellings, with a familiar feel -ceramic brickwork, wooden shutters, eaves to protect the facade-... Houses similar to many others. However, these houses were annoyingly arrogant. They refused to show their structure and would not reveal their floor plan. They were overly elegant in their modesty, displaying too much unnecessary beauty and this was inexcusable. HOUSING FOR BORSALINO EMPLOYEES Ignazio Gardella Corso Teresio Borsalino (Alessandria-Italy) 1948-1952 44°54’25.28”N / 8°36’55.00”E 1. Antonio Monestiroli. “Eleganza viene da eligere, ovvero da scegliere.” Casabella 736, 2005.04 Corso Teresio Borsalino 010251 151 “I moved away from dogmatic rationalism as I have always believed that there was more to architecture, something difficult to achieve with rationalism.” IGNAZIO GARDELLA, 1995.2 2. Antonio Monestiroli. Op. cit. 45.7 mJOSEP MARÍA TORRA CA TALÁ ROCA Chapter 3 170 / 10STORIES OF COLLECTIVE HOUSING DISSIDENCE 6: CERAMIC VERSUS CONCRETE REFERENCES HAM COMMON HOUSING Richmond. United Kingdom Stirling, Gowan 1955-1958 Just as Gardella had clearly distanced himself from Modernism following the Borsalino houses, Stir- ling-Gowan did the same with the Ham Common dwellings. This was their response to white concrete architecture, in this case based on the British tradi- tion of brickwork construction. PALLARS HOUSING Barcelona. Spain MBM Arquitectes 1958-1959 The use of brickwork on the facade in this case was merely due to adapting to the construction possi- bilities on offer in this country, where industrialized processes made construction work more expensive. In this example, knowledge of traditional techniques offers the possibility to build a wall which conceals the structure and is broken up in the staircases. MAISONS JAOUL Neuilly-Sur-Seine. France Le Corbusier 1954-1956 Conceived in 1937, they were not built until almost twenty years later and they are a sign of Le Corbusier bringing his period of white architecture to a close, as far as single-family houses are concerned. Dating from about the same time as the Borsalino building, the traditional materials confront concrete with the force of the raw material, with no concession to the picturesque.04 HOUSING FOR BORSALINO EMPLOYEES Ignazio Gardella THE ELEGANCE OF THE DISSIDENT 171 Clinker brick, which had been used by the Arts & Crafts movement, one of the styles most cen- sured by Modernism, was chosen as the material to clad the walls, in a very clear gesture to place a continuous skin in front of the envelope. With the passage of time, it is difficult to perceive the rupture which such a decision meant. It is necessary to return to the works of the time to be able to realize the complete predominance of white architecture in collective housing from the 1930s on and to calculate the effects on this panorama spreading out over Europe of the vision of a volume, which despite its evidently being part of contemporary architecture, had decided to use a traditional element such as brickwork to modulate the facade. 17. Reyner Banham. Op. cit. “Its stylistic sources go well beyond the wild Liberty of, say, d’Aronco, and draw clearly from the Wagnerschule in Vienna, and even from the Amsterdam school (particularly from de Klerk) and the Glasgow school. From these last two sources come, presumably, the preoccupation with brick, and a tendency to square off the profiles and silhouettes of projections and roof-slabs.” REYNER BANHAM, 1959.17 ConcreteBrickNext >