The texts published here, resulting from a careful selection of conferences and lectures in Venezia's more than 20 years of academic career, combine theoretical assumptions and practical experience, offering reflections on theory and practical application, ideas and designs. The writings of Francesco Venezia, gathered here for the first time.
The writings of Francesco Venezia, gathered here for the first time, are intended for today’s younger generations of architects, to whom they offer precise theoretical propositions as opposed to the prevailing contemporary banalization of forms and content. The texts published here, resulting from a careful selection of conferences and lectures in Venezia’s more than 20 years of academic career, combine theoretical assumptions and practical experience, offering reflections on theory and practical application, ideas and designs. The title of the book highlights the main themes of Francesco Venezia’s work in design. From the importance of the foundation act of building in places which, in the case of the Neapolitan architect, take the form of platforms, cavities and spaces underground which give his compositions a universal quality; to the subject of excavation, mining, and building with empty volumes and considering variations on the theme. To these he adds the importance of memory in architecture and the building of new parts in old buildings; the permanence and inexhaustibility of architecture as the building of form in time offers opinions about contemporary attitudes to marking the difference and the lack of communication between the spheres of archaeology and architecture. The book also contains brief contributions by Vincenzo Latina and Nicola Scian providing guidelines about how to understand the works designed, described and built by Francesco Venezia.