PIPPO CIORRA

Museum as a Space for Expanding Preservation

Please join us for a lunch lecture and discussion by Pippo Ciorra, architect, critic and professor at the Scuola di Architettura e Design, Università degli Studi di Camerino (SAAD UNICAM), and director of the International Ph.D. program “Villard d’Honnecourt” at IUAV University in Venice.

We have long known (and experienced) how architecture is made not only of buildings and the traditional documents related to them that we preserve in museums, archives, schools and institutions as evidence of the design process and its eventual outcome. It has also been happening for centuries in temporary buildings, structures and pavilions. More recently, installations, performances and even exhibitions have become architectural events that deserve to be “preserved” and curated because of their relevance and impact on spaces, communities and the architectural discipline.

The first part of this lecture will discuss how this expanding field of architectural operations lands and changes the tools and paradigms of preservation, opening up new research areas and new practices for scholars, practitioners, and institutions.

The second part of the lecture will be devoted to discussing with students and the audience how this new awareness can be reflected in the programs and exhibitions of the museum and cultural institutions in general. In particular, the goal is to introduce students to some new projects the museum is developing and how they might interact with these new conceptual areas of conservation. The audience will be encouraged to propose examples and discuss them in light of what is presented in the initial part of the lecture.

Pippo Ciorra is also the author of books and essays on architecture theory and urbanism as well as an advisor for the EU Mies van der Rohe award (member of the 2024 jury). He was part of the curatorial team for the 5th Architecture Biennale and juror for the 15th edition. He has curated exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Since 2009, he is Senior Curator of MAXXI Architettura in Rome. Among his shows: Re-cycle, Energy, The Japanese House, Bruno Zevi. History and Counter- History of Italian Architecture. Technoscape the Architecture of Engineers. For MAXXI He curates the NXT program for young architects (formerly YAP). He also co-curates Demanio Marittimo km 278, a yearly festival dedicated to culture and arts, is a co-founder of LINA, a European platform for young talents, and has co-directed the inter-disciplinary research program Housing the Human, based in Berlin.