Hymn to interdisciplinarity

'There is no difference between art and architecture, and I would not limit myself to just talking about these two disciplines, I would also put music and all the others into it' - says Mimmo Paladino, looking out the window of his studio in Piazza Navona , in Rome. The house where he lives and works is a total work of art, a design museum overlooking one of the iconic places of the Italian capital. The notes of the wedding of Figaro, Mozart's masterpiece, fill the rooms, on the CD and Vinyl library by Jannacci, Gaber, Battisti. 'If you look out here in front of you' - he adds - 'you see Borromini, who did not disdain to host a painter in his space, in those days the symbiosis between architect and artist was more than normal'. Sitting at his desk talking about the relationship between art and architecture, he already represents an answer to the topic of conversation.

Yet today it is thought that the interpenetration between the two has been lost, leaving room for claims of autonomy and defensive position. In a time when architecture forgets the existence of common ground with other arts, it is necessary to sing the praises of interdisciplinarity, to learn how to do this job. The red thread between the disciplines must be sought not in the action itself, but in the link with the sensorial sphere that unites every practice: designing means creating a work that produces a 'superstructural' pleasure. For the architect, the real test to overcome is the design process as well as the fatal encounter with the public, and so also for the artist and the musician. The expression and the intuitive genesis of the creation process weld together the contents of all the arts. Being, or becoming, a good designer means having the eye trained to look and the ear to listen. There is no distinction between seeing a film, a painting, reading a book or a poem, they are sources of pleasure that are transformed into tools to do our job well. 'But how can you say that you are interested in architecture but you don't know what is happening in other fields? It is a whole. Also here - in Piazza Navona - if Bach had not been there too we would not understand the forms of the Baroque, even if the musician and architect have never met. Today it is not understood that nothing is separate from artistic doing, there is too much planetary information which then becomes superficial. Everyone returns to their own territory, but by nature I am led to explore more territories. '

Each discipline gives its contribution to build the theoretical apparatus through which we can think of the spaces of living. We must not seek an escape from this claim to autonomy, the solution is to reflect on the architect's work, inextricably linked to the cultural stratification of each individual, guided by curiosity and the desire to explore new languages. Designing is therefore a sensist operation, a purely cultural fact.

Bianca Felicori