Paolo Portoghesi Architect

Portoghesi’s architecture – so focused on the diversity of sites, attentive to the needs and desires of its inhabitants and brimming with references to tradition and different fields of artistic expression – may seem obsolete and out-of-touch with contemporary architecture which in recent years has witnessed the sensational triumph of “self-referential” architecture that speaks only of itself and celebrates the independence of the work of art based on tabula rasa and intolerance towards rules and regulations. On the contrary this book shows how Portoghesi has taken up the gauntlet thrown down by the problems afflicting man and the city, how he has introjected the ethical legacy of modern architecture projecting it towards a possible future where the lava flow of homologised, consumer-oriented architecture can be stemmed and eliminated. Portoghesi is convinced that the season of violent and irresponsible vitalism is coming to an end, giving way to a new season of what he calls Geo-architecture: an architecture of responsibility that will help us establish a “new alliance” with nature.