Domus 876 December 2004
Domus
Domus 876
December 2004
In reality, what is Milan’s la Scala today? In just 60 years, one of the most famous opera houses in the world has been rebuilt twice. The first was after the aerial bombardments of August 1943, which – as Domus reported at the time – destroyed the roof and the proscenium. The second followed the decision three years ago to replace the old seventeenth-century scene machinery with a modern structure of mobile stages. With the inauguration on 7 December, la Scala has reopened its doors to the public after two years of construction and controversy surrounding the renovation by Swiss architect Mario Botta.
But the new la Scala is an alarming and mysterious urban organism that has totally lost its original architectural unity. The two large prostheses designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta have in fact completed the deconstruction of the building’s main body, which is now divided into at least four different parts: the small seventeenth-century facade designed by Piermarini, the new impressive stage tower, the ellipsoid services space, and the concert hall. These four buildings cling to each other in an uneasy balance.
But paradoxically it is the breaking up of the original architecture that has revealed the Milanese theatre’s symbolic strength. This strength entirely corresponds to its main hall: a warm nucleus, rich with symbols and memories that has resisted every bombardment and fragmentation. La Scala’s hall – the stalls, the boxes and the orchestra pit – is now more that ever an “urban interior”, connected in the collective memory to the spaces of the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery and Piazza Duomo. La Scala’s orchestra space is an encircling, deep red cradle of impetuous musical currents. It is in itself a piece of urban architecture, and so powerful as to have no need of an exterior; so independent that it requires no facade on the city.
Calendar
Ettore Sottsass Pictures from a window
Steven Holl. Voice of the Suburbs?
Some reflections on George W. Bush’s re-election: suburbs vs urban centres?
SANAA. 21th Century Museum of Contemporary Art
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa’s latest project alters the museum’s conventional spatial organisation, sacrificing monumentality for the sake of a strong integration with its surrounding urban context. Text by Joseph Grima, photography by Walter Niedermayr
Giancarlo De Carlo. The spirits of Milan
An appeal in favour of Milan
About the Scala
Milan’s La Scala Theatre reopens after three years of construction and controversy. Texts by John Foot, Angela Frucci, photography by Lelli&Masotti
Gillo Dorfles. The museum as history and architecture
Theatres and museums are the only contemporary buildings with an impression of everlastingness
Pierre Boulez, Frank Gehry, Paul Holdengraber. In the ear of the beholder
A composer/conductor, an architect and a critic talk about music, architecture and their interction with people. Edited by Karen Marta, Laura Bossi
Max Neuhaus. Shaping sound
Neuhaus’s non-visual works of art have opened up the territory of contemporary art to the use of sound. Text by Yehuda Safran. Photography by Francesco Jodice
Bruno Latour. Politics of time, politics of space
Everything has become contemporary. The time of cohabitation is here
Interview: Karlheinz Stockhausen
Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews Karlheinz Stockhausen, the most innovative and influential German composer of the postwar era. Photography by Roberto Masotti
D.H. Damien Hirst in Naples. It’s great to be alive
Hirst’s solo show at the Museo Archeologico in Naples. Text by Caroline Corbetta. Photography by Pino Guidolotti
Steven Holl. Eight towers and a flying ring
Outside Beijing’s historic walls, Steven Holl is building a “city within a city” complete with a flying ring of public spaces
Simon Heijdens. Biography of objects
The young Dutch designer applies the techniques acquired in his study of cinema to the design of everyday objects. Text by Marco Belpoliti, photography by Ramak Fazel
Post-it: Books Rassegna Outdoors Panorama
El Topo: Paola Pivi
Edited by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick (Wrong Gallery)
