Temple, Machine, Caravan. Theater and the city in 20th century Italy

Between 1965 and 1975 there was a very intense debate in Italy about the theatrical architecture, the theatre building and its urban, social and political role. It was articulated around three terms that assume three ways of relation between the theatrical building and the city: the temple, the machine and the caravan. That debate, of an unusual wealth, was completely absent from the official historiography of Italian and European architecture, despite its intensity and the importance of all its protagonists for the architectural culture of the twentieth century. Many of the most prominent architects, critics and historians intervened in this debate with unbuilt competition proposals, opinions or rigorous analysis. One of the most active was Guido Canella, with a broad career as theatre architect and a scholar of theater culture himself. He organized a design studio at the Politecnico di Milano in 1965, accompanied by lectures, panel discussions and group performances by international avant-garde artists. All this material was gathered in a publication edited by Guido Canella that inaugurated this debate, called The Theatrical System in Milan, and to which all protagonists referred at some point of their respective interventions. In addition to Guido Canella, other personalities such as Bruno Zevi, Maurizio Sacripanti, Constantino Dardi, Mario Manieri-Elia and Manfredo Tafuri, intervened marking a cultural reef that remains widely forgotten today.