Author:Dario Costs
Volume 195 of Architectural Documents
Mondadori Electa, Illustrated edition
Electa Architecture, 2015
Formed by four partners trained in Rome - Maria Laura Arlotti, Michele Beccu, Paolo Desideri, Filippo Raimondo - the ABDR studio is an example of an international office of contemporary architecture on the Italian scene. Since 1982, the work has been articulated on many overlapping levels. From the commitment to the design interpretation of the infrastructure, in the dialogue with engineering and the ability to meet the technological challenge, to the urban dimension of the actions on the contemporary city resolved through the architectural scale, to the interventions on the theme of the public building, to the attention to the delicate relationship between new and old, each project deals with increasingly complex occasions. This volume documents the most significant episodes of this great body of work and constructs the first complete registry of projects and works from over thirty years, from the foundation of the studio to the present day. Dario Costi rereads and orders these materials, bringing reflection on the themes underlying the architectures, investigating the links between theoretical reflection and design experimentation induced by the permanent critical dialogue with the contemporary city in its complexity and construction. An essay by Claudia Conforti reconstructs and contextualises the intellectual and professional vicissitudes of the four partners from their youthful years in Rome to the international affirmation of our days.