Now that zenithal views have become common through the use of drones, and that even in the most remote places on-line aerial views are used for orientating, we should expect more care to be exercised in restoring roofs in historic cities like Venice. Here, over the last 40 years, the very large majority of the [...]
Houses in Venice are surrounded by seawater. The soluble salts it contains are the worst enemies for brick, stone and lime mortar. Capillarity transports salt as much as several metres above ground level, where the water evaporates and the salt crystallizes in the pores of the masonry and provokes its destruction. Salt can easily be [...]
The monograph “La villa Jeanneret-Perret di Le Corbusier” gives an in-depth analysis of the first independently designed construction by Le Corbusier, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. The villa Jeanneret-Perret built for his parents in 1912 is revealed to have been an extraordinarily rich experimental playground for his early reflections [...]
The article “Colonne et poteau dans les premières oeuvres de Le Corbusier “ explores Le Corbusier’s early theoretical and practical experimentation of new construction materials like reinforced concrete and laminated timber. It was published by the Swiss Polytechnic School in the anthology “Nouvelle histoire de la construction” directed by Roberto Gargiani in 2008. The [...]
The article “Recording a Unique Built Heritage”, co-written with Christophe Bouleau, describes the documentation of the Citadel of Aleppo and the formation of a local team in surveying techniques for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. It was published in Syria, Medieval Citadels Between East and West, ed. Stefano Bianca, Geneva 2007. [...]
The article “Jeanneret, the city and Photography” throws light on Le Corbusier’s early interest in photography as a tool for communicating his in-depth analysis of the spatial complexity of historic cities. It also shows how Le Corbusier transposed his observations on existing architecture into his own architecture and finally how he used photography to [...]