Gregotti CLOSES

What is the way to go when in front of us we find an uncertain and unpredictable future and behind us a path that has been trodden for too long, that is, when we must necessarily expose ourselves to the present?

"Architecture no longer interests anyone" is the title of Francesco Erbani's interview with Vittorio Gregotti, released on July 12 for 'La Repubblica' where the architect said he wanted to close his studio after 43 years .

This fact, in my opinion, can lead us to reflect: considering the closure of a large studio as a metaphor for our contemporaneity which, probably, oscillates more than ever between past and future.

Here it perhaps becomes necessary to think about time, about how it is experienced in architecture and in our daily life, about how it is a refuge for people, preferring in some way a past or future reality far from the current condition.

Taking refuge in the past can mean distorting it, modifying it, making it anachronistic; this leads to a critical consideration of the present without, however, having the possibility to act on it.

Taking refuge in the future, on the other hand, can be illusory, full of hopes and distant images that disregard reality.

The present is necessarily saturated , chaotic and often contradictory but it is the only dimension in which it is possible for us to operate; territory full of doubts necessary for a valid maturation.

The closure of Gregotti's studio could be interpreted as a relay passage to those who today will be able to read time without suffering it, because as the architect reminds us at the end of the article: "The materials of architecture are not just concrete or glass, are also needs, hopes and historical knowledge ”.

Alberto De Virgiliis