Enthusiasm, imagination, perspective, vision: the joyful soul of Carlo Piano talks about his book, about the new bridge in Genoa that his father Renzo - the Italian architect admired all over the world, Pritzker Prize, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and another endless series of international awards - he gave to Italy.
Journalist and writer, essayist and novelist, Carlo Piano knows he has a huge responsibility on his shoulders: to carry on, with his family, the legacy of an extraordinary parent who, after the age of 80, continues to conceive wonders that illuminate the planet of beauty , genius and technology.
He does this by going around witnessing the work of an exceptional artist and telling it in his books.
In the frame of the Black and White festival, organized in recent days at Palazzo Doglio in Cagliari by Interforma, a collective of enthusiasts and sensitive enthusiasts gathered around Barbara Carcangiu and Enrico Exiana, presented his latest literary work, "Il Cantiere di Berto, the novel of the Genoa Bridge ”published by and / or, interviewed by Giorgio Vulcano.
Let's start from your novel, without revealing too many details: who is Berto and why this name?
“Berto is a fifty-year-old surveyor from Certosa, the district of Genoa under the Morandi Bridge that was completely cut off after the collapse. For example: to get to the Villa Scassi hospital it normally took 15 minutes. After the tragedy, without that important artery anymore, it took 40 minutes or more. So let's imagine what this isolation meant also in consideration of the dramatic period of the pandemic. Berto, opening the window of his house, saw the bridge every day of his existence: a friend, a neighbor, a travel companion, a constant horizon even in moments of reflection when a person looks out to see the passing of time and the rhythm of people's daily life. Certosa is perhaps the place that has suffered the most: the shutters of the shops that were lowered without reopening could no longer be counted, many houses, especially those in the street just below the bridge, have been displaced and in many cases demolished, even the simple passage of Genoese and tourists was now a distant memory ".
Returning to Berto ...
“Berto, fifty years old with a little bacon, is one of the thousand who worked, for 420 days seven days a week, on the construction site to rebuild the bridge. A real army in permanent service at the disposal of the Nation: there was a wrong to be repaired, a scar on the collective memory that united all the regions of Italy in a breath of intent that strongly wanted a rebirth. It is the magic of the construction site, of doing things together, of the united team. In that citadel of workers the soundtrack of the curses ranged from the Genoese 'Belin' to the Bergamo 'pota' up to the more colorful ones of Sicily and Sardinia. But there were also foreigners. All united towards a common goal ".
In Italy, we are often used to endless public works, is that of the Genoa bridge, given by your father not only to the city but to the whole nation and the whole world, is it a miracle?
“It is not a miracle: when we get to work, and I am talking about all Italians, from Trentino to the South and the Islands, we are capable of great enterprises. The city was cut off with everything that follows: Genoa is the first Italian port, with Genoa the whole country symbolically stopped. And this has impressed public opinion already terribly weakened by the mourning of so many lives broken by an event as senseless as it is predictable given the deteriorating conditions of some parts of the structure. When we do not get lost in robberies, investigations and other threats, we can show the world what we are capable of: the Genoa bridge is a plastic and unanimous demonstration of the industriousness of the whole country. The steel of the bridge deck was partly built in Castellammare di Stabia, transported to Genoa across the Tyrrhenian Sea. But also in the foundries of Genoa and Valeggio sul Mincio in the Province of Verona. A pride of the construction site has emerged, an unstoppable desire for strength, will and competence ”.
After the successful construction of the new bridge, it was often remembered that the Autostrada del Sole was built in just 7 years. Why, on the other hand, are delays in ordinary history today?
“This is a good question but I don't think I am the most competent person to answer such an urgent and topical question since the stories of ordinary bureaucracy that block construction sites are everyday news. I believe that the complexity of the regulations, the legislation and the ordinariness of works not perceived by the whole nation, relegated to public works of gray normality, often ugly and conceived without a soul and with little passion, combined with a quirky and dated judicial system , are an explosive mix that leads to endless and scandalous unfinished construction sites. In the specific case we were saved for two reasons, in addition to the emotional and symbolic ones that I explained earlier: the new bridge was paid for entirely by Autostrade and in addition the Government has provided for the figure of the Commissioner identified in the mayor of Genoa to streamline any type of procedure and offer the whole world an image of what is made in Italy also in the field of infrastructures, that is, speed of execution, excellence of materials, creativity and technology ".
She studied literature and writes instead of drawing. Was it your choice or that of the family?
“My choice. I have always enjoyed writing and immediately embarked on a career as a journalist. I met your former director, the talented Mario Sechi, at the Independent and then at the Giornale in the Genoa editorial office. However, architecture has a humanistic component and this aspect has always fascinated me too ”.
Doesn't she sometimes have the desire to be able to retrace her father's footsteps and be an architect?
“I don't get this desire because he's too good, he's unattainable. Then he lived a totally different era, that of '68, with an extraordinary cultural ferment that has shaped in particular artists like my father, with a genius that is difficult to reproduce. A vivacity and an intellectual climate that our generation has not known except through the story of the parents ”.
Is it true that in your youth it was you who planned the pranks involving your other brother Matteo and his sister Lia? He once had your German Shepherds found shorn.
“Yes, that's right, but only because they were hot. I did it in good faith even though I didn't ask my parents. I've done several, I have to admit. Let's say that even my father was not a saint in terms of vivacity. He failed at school twice but then made a great recovery. After all, even Giuseppe Verdi was not judged suitable during the exam to enter the Milan Conservatory, but then he became the genius of music that we all know without going through that prestigious school ".
Among the many masterpieces which is the work of your father that you prefer?
“For me the Beaubourg because it was the beginning of everything. He and Richard Rogers, at the time almost two runaways, took part in the competition of ideas for that project so futuristic and innovative, but they certainly did not expect to win. When they phoned from Paris to communicate the result, the competition secretary, obviously speaking in French, used the term 'lauré' which means winner. But, given the knowledge of French in the almost scholastic era, my father replied, thinking that they were asking if he had a degree, that he had obtained the title at the Politecnico di Milano without understanding the true meaning of the call which in reality was aimed at the convocation of the two competitors for the consecration of the project chosen by the commission. It was an extraordinary surprise that changed my father's life ”.
What is special about Beaubourg for you?
“The Beaubourg was born as a rebellious idea: a culture factory in the noble center of Paris was a slap in the face of the collective imagination that considered museums boring and dusty places. Why build a place of traditional culture? Not at all. My father, as a rebel that he was, wanted to stimulate the curiosity of the French and conceived the Beaubourg as an opposite to the museum as the cultural home of the elite. Moreover, the announcement itself contained elements of transgressiveness. He inserted his vision of transgression into the project, pushing it to the limit: in doing so he gave an explicit interpretation that the commission took by awarding the project as the best among the many who arrived from all over the world, even from great starchitects of the time ".
The perfect city?
“It is Atlantis, the one that an architect dreams of all his life and that he knows he will never be able to reach as it would not be perfect. I mean perfect architecturally but also from a civil point of view, an ideal environment where harmony and harmony reign. We talked about the perfect city in the book preceding this one entitled, precisely, 'Atlantis, a journey in search of beauty' published by Feltrinelli. To better frame the topic, we should also talk about the suburbs, a topic very dear to my father who is tackling the problem with the G124 project: since he became a senator for life in 2013, he has donated part of his salary to young professionals for the 'mending' of the Italian suburbs. Because if we consider that a residual part of the populations of large cities is in the historic centers, which after decades of protection and enhancement initiatives have been preserved and relaunched, the rest of the inhabitants live in the suburbs that need innovative attention that can be foreseen, for example, an energetic characterization: in this way it would be possible to guarantee a rebirth of value, dignity and new development opportunities for large areas of the peripheral territories. This could be the city of the future ”.
LP
