Luigi Pellegrin: Visionary of Architecture
& collect
In 1930, Luigi Pellegrin’s father is working on the Buon Pastore compound in Rome, the future seat of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd of Augiere. Pellegrin writes: “I was five years old when I entered Buon Pastore. I spent there the following five years, while the building grew up faster than me”. The compound is a huge baroque castle set on green hills sliding down towards the city; on the background, in the distance, Saint Peter’s dome. All around just green fields. Twenty years later, at the beginning of the 50s, Pellegrin starts his career as an architect. The war has just finished, reconstruction is starting and Pellegrin chooses the organic way. He takes root in Wright. In the first half of the 50s, he goes repeatedly to the United States. First in Louisiana where the experience in the practice of W. R. Burck will immediately oblige him to face the subject of school building. Then in Chicago. In the Art Institute, a woman shows him Louis Sullivan’s drawings. He will be struck by them and that vision will nourish all his research. During these stays he starts a deep investigation on the entire body of the “Chicago School”. In 1956 Pellegrin meets Wright who is in Rome as Bruno Zevi’s guest. He appreciates Wright’s capacity to “skip history and let archaic shapes reemerge”, but in Sullivan’s drawings - observed in the Art Institute of Chicago - he glimpsed something indefinite and clear at the same time. In those drawings, made of rigid and flowing geometries, Pellegrin sees chaos and cosmos, primordial impulses, coagulating fluxes of energy. A freeze-frame of the primordial soup.

In line with Soleri and Fuller’s approach, Pellegrin proposes interventions on planetary level. He imagines to locate the population in a overhead ring along the equator. “On our planet Earth the temperate zone is the most appropriate place to live in harmony with natural conditions”. In a vision which denies anthropocentrism, but not the role of man, Pellegrin proposes a new place for man on the planet. A place that leaves space also to others, to nature, to vegetation. Visions of a freed environment where the buildings are limited to dense hubs raised from the ground. Clearing the ground is the constant imperative: the place for man is above, in specialized macro branches connected through lines which contain energy fluxes. On the ground, nature regains its space; the artificial is limited to few, dense singular points. Changing perspective, jumping to the planet level, Pellegrin shows us how to face the theme of sustainability in a different, almost brave, way.

Luigi Pellegrin, 1925 – 2001

Text by Sergio Bianchi
share Luigi Pellegrin: Visionary of Architecture
penccil.com/gallery.php?show=9945
In 1966 Pellegrin produces a set of fantasy drawings that recall the movements of matter. That makes him start an investigation on how the artificial should relate with the planet. In 1992 he reorders that set of visions according to different themes. In these drawings Pellegrin foresees spaces that fluctuate on the planet surface. Supports are reduced to the minimum. Sometimes it’s the planet surface itself that twists and generates space.
These visions suggest him a new way to inhabit the planet. The idea of settlements as clusters of matter lifted from the ground. This idea was embryonic in Le Corbusier. In Le Corbusier’s thinking there was also the separation from the ground: the pillars were supposed to give a visual continuity to the ground level. However, according to Pellegrin, Le Corbusier’s pillars are not enough because “they do not allow the earth to breath”. “Pillars should allow the real continuity”, so he pushes and separates them “moving the buildings between 20 and 40 meters from the ground”.
In 1974 he plans and builds a housing module using reinforced polyester resin and calls it a "modular monobject". During these years, he intensely focuses on prefabrication. This research leads him to develop numerous patents mostly applied to school building. The unit is motivated only in terms of its aggregation and this set always bends in its attempt to generate macrospacing, allowing free spaces to flow on the ground.
In 1970, Pellegrin writes “it’s a great feeling and pleasure to imagine the transition of a line from its static shape to a containing cavity vector, that freed from its adherence to the ground can penetrate mountains and reemerge to the light and continue to roll creating a hub, a community place”.
  Inspirations.  
Carlo Scarpa
jardin des sculptures. C Scarpa
The loft bar
Concept project of loft bar.
Low cost urban transport
Combining contemporary technology with a focus on low cost and reliability, this neighborhood transp...
Hybrid urban scooter
A low-cost hybrid urban scooter for developing countries running either on electric battery or on bi...
Mechanical Suprematist
Experience interesting architectural compositions being created as you look around. This generator w...
Immersive sketch
Travel through an animated architectural sketch (move mouse to look around): http://mariogagliardi.c...
penccil: This was 2017
The penccil year in review is a project selection for 2017, this year curated by Mario Gagliardi. Se...
serpentine 2017
exhibition, schauspiel köln, cologne. steelobjects, ceramic reliefs.
BS1
temporary accessible sculpture.
BKM/Barozzi/Veiga
The extension of the Villa Planta, which will accommodate the Bündner Kunstmuseum, is an exercise o...
Fallingwater
Modernist Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright
Green Architecture…. Is it blessing or curse!!
GREEN ARCHITECTURE….IT IS GOOD FOR THE NATURAL WORLD OR MAYBE IT WILL BE A MESS OF THE TREES AND P...
Library
A library in the center of Moscow, study project.
Vico Magistretti
Vico Magistretti (1920 - 2006) studied in Lausanne and Milano. He was one of the main protagonists o...
Franz Kline
Around 1950, Franz Kline radically simplified painting: “Instead of making a sign you can read, yo...
Lattice
Architectural structures. Mario Gagliardi 2006
Gaetano Pesce: Abstraction is boring
"Abstraction is boring and limited as a mode of expression. Reducing and reducing designs means that...
Chromatic seating
3 colorful seats by 3 Italian designers: Giancarlo Zema graduated from the Faculty of Architecture o...
Kenzo Tange
Kenzo Tange was born September 4, 1913 in Osaka, Japan. After graduating from the University of Toky...
Organic Public
Contemporary cities are in need of public spaces which work better for their citizens. This proposal...
Thai Silk and Rattan
In Thailand, Mario Gagliardi directed a collaboration with silk weavers from Buri Ram and rattan fur...
Design for Disaster
"A disaster zone where everything is lost offers the perfect opportunity for us to take a fresh look...
Shared Space
To develop better urban strategies and futures for communities in desert climates, Mario Gagliardi w...
Books of Memory: Gianpaolo Pagni
Gianpaolo Pagni creates unique, printed, painted or stamped books. His work focuses around memory an...
Memphis Posters
4 posters by the legendary Italian design collective Memphis Milano.
Food Architecture
Food dal cucchiaio al mondo: Works of artists and architects who deal with the global political, soc...
Sky Walk
The Dolní Morava tower Sky Walk by Zdenek Franek is a conceptual building, and it offers visitors ...
Joe Colombo: Total Furnishing Unit
The Total furnishing unit: Bathroom by Joe Colombo, Milano 1971.
Pillars
Consisting of connected bricks whose relative position can be altered by changing underlying paramet...
Microscopes of utopia
This are some of landscapes spaces of nowhere with spaces inside
Brazil Modernism
20th century architecture in Brazil, including work by Lina Bo Bardi, Lúcio Costa, Affonso Reidy, O...
Carlo Scarpa: Sketch and Work
There is hardly another architect of the 20th century in whose work the progression from sketch to c...
Peter Zumthor: Thinking Architecture
A selection of remarkable work by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
The Bauhaus Revolution
The Bauhaus was the most influential design school of the 20th century. See more in the new magazin...
E=C=L=I=P=S=E
Cerith Wyn Evans is a Welsh sculptor and filmmaker. He worked as an assistant to Derek Jarman, at th...
In Orbit
"When I look at these complex layers of translucent lines and spheres, I am reminded of models of th...
Tom Ngo
"Common sense and conventional practice prohibits the evolution of architecture. Through reproducing...
Sislej Xhafa
Sislej Xhafa has furnished the waiting room of a police station in Gent like a grand palace. He pres...
Future Architecture
Future Architecture Platform is a European program which promotes talents in architecture. Future A...
Superstudio, Superproduction, Superconsumption
Superarchitecture is the architecture of superproduction, of superconsumption, of superinduction to ...
Heartbeat, Heartseat
Heartbeat consists of a massive heart glowing to the rhythm of a strong, deep and low frequency hear...
Swarm fabrication: Kokkugia / Roland Snooks
We have a fascination with the impact of new technologies on architecture and construction. We are f...
Spatial Clusters
"Refined nature consists of evolved technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetic...
Une Cité Industrielle by Tony Garnier
Tony Garnier designed the plans of an ideal city during his stay at the Villa Médicis from 1899 to ...
L’ITALIA CI GUARDIA
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the birth of the Italian Republic, 40 masters of photogra...
The Glass House
"This house was Philip Johnson's autobiography—all of his interests were visible, and all of his a...
20th Century Italian Tables
A collection of 20th century Italian table designs.
Julius Shulman: Visual Drama
"Julius had an eye for visual drama. With modernist buildings, he loved capturing the strong lines s...
Bird´s Nest
I am often struck by the nests that crows build using clothes hangers. Hangers are not only durable ...
BASILE ARTECO "Monoblocco" design Donata Paruccini
pen-holder design Donata Paruccini
BASILE ARTECO
BASILE ARTECO EDIZIONI logo
BASILE ARTECO "Falce/Scythe" design anonimo
Design Anonimo, Scythe in forged iron handmade in Italy in the occasion of the exhibition of the "FE...
BASILE ARTECO "Ferro/D" design Enzo Mari
DESIGN ENZO MARI: Forged iron and Murano Glass Vase, Limited Edition of 6, numbered and signed by th...
BASILE ARTECO "Ferro/A" design Enzo Mari
DESIGN ENZO MARI: Forged iron fruit-bowl Limited Edition of 4, numbered and signed by the Author Enz...
BASILE ARTECO "Ferro/B" design Enzo Mari
DESIGN ENZO MARI: Forged iron fruit-bowl, Limited Edition of 6 numberd and signed by the Author Enzo...
BASILE ARTECO "Ferro/C" design Enzo Mari
DESIGN ENZO MARI: Forged iron and Murano Glass Vase, limited Edition of 4 signed and numbered by the...
BASILE ARTECO "L´Utopia" design Enzo Mari
ENZO MARI: Original hand written script on paper for Vincenzo Basile exhibition "Ferri Forgiati" Gal...
BASILE ARTECO "Monoblocco/L" design Donata Paruccini
DESIGN DONATA PARUCCINI: pen holder
BASILE ARTECO "Coquetier" design Paolo Ulian
DESIGN PAOLO ULIAN: egg-holder
Mimicry and Makeshift
Two future visions for urbanism and ownership: Mimicry city - where everything wants to be owned. As...
Colliding Worlds
Architectural models of small planets appear in unexpected places. (C) Mario Gagliardi 2007
Jean-Jaques Lequeu
Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757-1825) worked as a draughtsman at Rouen, and from 1779 in Paris at the Cad...
Amor Vacui
Domink von Moos, born 1990, studied architecture at ETH Zurich.
Archispecture
Architectural studies. Mario Gagliardi 2007-2010.
Small Buildings
Photographer Eric Tabuchi, born 1959, lives and works in Paris.
Bring the outside in: The houses of Joseph Eichler
“Eichlers,” as they are referred to in California, are midcentury modern tract homes developed b...
Harrison and Abramovitz
Architects Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz, who worked independently in New York in a partnershi...
DADAMAINO
“I have always loathed the material and have always sought the immaterial” Dadamaino (Emilia Edo...
Manufactured Landscapes
We've created landscapes dense with human history, layered with the traces of our experience and cri...
Sketching: Bellini, Castiglioni, Colombo, Mari, Magistretti, Munari, Ponti, Sottsass
The essence of a classic design is best seen in its very first sketch. A unique selection of sketche...
also:
Shop Them - DR NOKI T-shirts are here!
penccil is happy to announce its launching of penccil shop <t https://penccil.com/shop with fashion ...
Mario Casa dining chairs
Dining chairs by Mario casa are 100% handcrafted in natural materials. https://mariocasa.it
Mario Casa Carpets
Mario Casa carpets are handcrafted in 100% New Zealand Merino wool. https://mariocasa.it
Mario Casa Tables
Mario Casa coffee tables, side tables and dining tables are 100% handcrafted by our cabinetmakers in...
Mario Casa Lounge Chairs
Lounge chairs by Mario Casa, designed by Mario Gagliardi, are 100% hand-crafted in natural materials...
String Theory: Architecture of Connections
This speculative project starts with the idea that space is not defined by volume, but by connectio...
The painted house
These experimental structures have been created by combining design processes of architecture and gr...
Casa Sperimentale
One of the most visionary built experiments of 20th century architecture was created through the per...
colors
colors
SCARABOOK
SCARABOOK is the combination of Scarabottolo and the English word book (but perhaps we ought to say ...
My calendar
I start to make it in 2000, the year in which the future has passed, at the request of Adriano Mei G...
71 views of the magic mountain
In the days of the first lockdown I started making these drawings, remotely inspired by Hokusai´s "...
on paper books and e-books
these drawings were made thinking about what is happening to the books through various titles of cla...
Last and First Men
The first and last movie by iconic Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969 - 2018). With his mu...
el cairel II
turistic housing complex buit in reinforced concret
No.5 Warehouse Museum of Fossil
A space in the headquarter of a stone manufacturer in China. With its monochromatic walls, oddly sla...
Pulp architecture
The need to stand out in a hyper-commercialized market results in remarkable examples of contemporar...
Dovecote-Granary
Tiago Do Vale took on the admirable task of restoring two maize granaries as examples for disappeari...
Core Agora
These shop pavillions in an area of a hotel complex in Greece, designed by Not a Number Architects, ...
Sonata
Sonata, a multi-housing project in Merida, Mexico, was designed by Mexican practice Arkham. Partly e...
K11 Musea
Westworld meets Surrealism in the interior design of K11 Musea, a new shopping mall in Hong Kong, a ...
Lotus Zen House
The Lotus Zen House hotel is located in Mount Jiuhua, an important Buddhist site in China. Hong Kong...
Laurel Hills Residence
A beautiful example of a contemporary Californian residence, designed by Assembledge architects. The...
House 33
House No 33 by Uemori Masaaki and Uemori Kokutou: A fantastic example on how contemporary architectu...
Architectural sculptures
Architectural sculptures by K. Kegelmann as part of "Future City" curated by Mario Gagliardi at the ...
Nature morte/Nature vivante
Until recently, artists, designers and architects were used to working with inert, non-living materi...
The gilded castle
Besides castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, Peles is the most remarkable turn-of-the-century castle i...
Upcycled
Furniture design from upcycled materials: Stools from old rubber tyres, oil barrels and washing mach...
The Heavy Palace
The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest was built in the nineteen-eighties after a design by Anca ...
Reactive Space
Inspired by Plato´s allegory of the cave, this is an architectural study for spaces reacting to its...
Calatrava : Sculptures
Sculptures by architect Santiago Calatrava.
PIXelated Cube
experiment idea materialmatters architecture
CAMOUFLAGE ARCHITECTURE
My thesis gallery about camouflage and architecture
The Venice Pavillon
The Venice Pavillon interprets the history of Venice as a point of contact between West and East. Sh...
Collaborative City Planning
The result of the Zero Carbon project: a collaborative scale model of the prototype site, close to t...
Structures
Architectural studies, Mario Gagliardi 2002-2004.
Dreaming of Skyscrapers
Mario Gagliardi 2006.
Alessandro Mendini 1931-2019
For Alchimia, design is a cyle: everything that will have to happen has already happened, and the im...
Terror Architecture -18th Century Prisons
In the late 1770s, there was a particular interest in the development of not only scientific and rhe...
Kunio Makaewa
Kunio Maekawa was a master of Japanese modernist architecture. He learned under Le Corbusier and was...
Digital Biology
Interior studies for public indoor spaces merging digital and biological environments. Wall modules ...
Fashion, Food, Transport
FUTURE CITY premiered at Vienna Art Week 2018 on November 20, 2018, at MAK Museum of Applied Arts in...