Giovanni Michelucci. I disegni degli ultimi dieci anni

Giovanni Michelucci. I disegni degli ultimi dieci anni, co-edited with Andrea Aleardi and Nadia Musumeci, originated from a project by the Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci devoted to the final phase of the Tuscan architect’s career. The volume brings together a selection of drawings preserved in the archives of the Foundation in Fiesole and the Centro di Documentazione Giovanni Michelucci in Pistoia, focusing on the research Michelucci conducted throughout the 1980s and up to his final projects in 1990.
The publication combines project studies with thematic groups of drawings, revealing drawing as a central tool in Michelucci’s creative process. Alongside projects conceived for the city and public space are more exploratory investigations, in which architecture emerges from engagement with nature or from reflections on sacred space.

The Catalogue Entries

As co-editor, I contributed to the volume’s editorial development and wrote the entries accompanying all the projects and groups of drawings published in the catalogue’s main section.
The entries reconstruct the context in which each line of research developed and trace the evolution of the different solutions through the sketches preserved in the archives. Drawing is therefore considered not only as project documentation, but also as a tool through which Michelucci tested spatial possibilities and reworked recurring themes in his practice.
The selection includes unpublished or relatively little-studied projects, such as the sports centre in Prato, the new Palace of Justice in Florence and the Theatre in Olbia, as well as independent series devoted to nature or to Le radici della città. In these latter works, Michelucci’s graphic language becomes particularly free, allowing us to observe how natural forms are progressively transformed into images of architecture and urban space.