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2A+P/A Maps, Models and Pictures editor Gianfranco Bombaci Matteo Costanzo Photos and drawings editor Gabriel Arauju Moreira da Silva

ISBN 978-88-6242-877-4 First english version March 2026 Reproduction, even partial, carried out by any means, including photocopying, is prohibited, as well as internal or educational use. According to Italian law, photocopying is permissible only for personal use provided it does not harm the author. Therefore, any photocopying that avoids the purchase of a book is illegal and threatens the survival of a way of transmitting knowledge. Those who photocopy a book, those who provide the means to photocopy, and those who otherwise support this practice are committing theft and operating to the detriment of culture. Printed in March 2026 by TheFactory, Rome LetteraVentidue Edizioni Srl Via Luigi Spagna 50 P 96100 Siracusa, Italy www.letteraventidue.com

Index 4

Maps, Models and Pictures Gianfranco Bombaci and Matteo Costanzo

Cabinet of Curiosities

36 Drawings

Misunderstandings

Nothing Left to Design

Everything Out the Door

Disappear Like a Stone Sinking into the Ocean

Dots, Lines and Squares

102

On Aldo Rossi

110

Atto Primo

122

Performa

144

Interior Tales: Happy Together

160

Globalized Bauhaus text by Andrea Branzi

174

The Museum as a Park

186

Central Archive of Human Cultures text by Davide Sacconi text by Gian Piero Frassinelli

204

Savage Architecture

210

Rome East

222

Rome: Fragments of a Plan. 16 Maps of Rome text by Gabriele Mastrigli

228

Studiolo

Maps, Models and Pictures Gianfranco Bombaci Matteo Costanzo

The work of the studio 2A+P/A is deeply rooted in a moment of architectural thinking in which the project was conceived as a tool for investigating contemporary social, political, and economic conditions. The 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, a historical period in which drawings, models and pictures used architecture as a critical medium, at times ironic, at times uncompromising, to produce subversive, militant projects that actively participated in an intellectual discourse spanning the full spectrum of thought, from art to philosophy. These decades offered a fertile ground for redefining the disciplinary boundaries of architecture, questioning its conventions and its 4

institutional roles, and projecting alternative futures through speculative and visionary practices. Our engagement with the radical movement and the subsequent historical-critical debates has allowed us to trace a path that consistently seeks to cultivate this same posture, this tension, toward an architectural project that does not merely solve problems or respond precisely to briefs, but instead expresses a clear and intentional stance on the urgent questions facing our complex societies. Rather than being driven by formal innovation or technological performance alone, our work aspires to activate reflection, provoke reaction, and open spaces for collective imagination. In this perspective, the project becomes a narrative device, a cultural artifact that is both political and poetic. Along this path, the studio has had the opportunity to share design experiences with key figures from that extraordinary era. Collaborations with Andrea Branzi and Gian Piero Frassinelli have shown us the rigor required to be radical, in the true sense of going to the root of things without compromise. These collaborations have offered a vision of architecture capable of transcending disciplinary boundaries, opening up toward anthropology and the human sciences. Their work illuminated the possibility of a practice that is at once deeply grounded and radically open, capable of resonating with broader social imaginaries. 5

Cabinet of Curiosities Architettura Monumentale

In an attempt to engage with Ettore Sottsass’s work, we discovered the possibility of a timeless collaboration in one of his drawings entitled “Architettura Monumentale”. This mysterious yet highly expressive design seemed full of promise and open to further development. We envisioned inserting an autonomous element to inhabit the interior, transforming it into the design for a house in Filicudi island. During the first Architecture Biennale in Orléans, organized by FRAC Centre Val-de-Loire, the dream inspired by the drawing became reality, taking the form of a smaller exhibition pavilion. Initially installed in the center of Orléans, the pavilion now resides in the Park Floral de La Source as a permanent extension of the museum. 10

Ettore Sottsass Architettura monumentale, 2003 Courtesy: Galleria Antonia Jannone

A house from a drawing of Ettore Sottsass Pictures of the model in Ostia beach, Rome, 2012 Model: Marco Galofaro - Modelab Photographs: Antonio Ottomanelli

Frank O. Gehry Arnoldi Triplex Los Angeles, U.S.A., 1981

Carlo Aymonino Colossus, Rome, Italy, 1984

Costantino Dardi Renovation of Porta S. Paolo Rome, Italy, 1984

Memphis Casablanca 1981

Jean Nouvel Nemausus Nîmes, France, 1988

Absalon Cellule No. 3 New York, U.S.A., 1992

Andrea Branzi, Lapo Lani and Ernesto Bartolini Masterplan Strijp Philips Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 2000

Ettore Sottsass Jr. Architettura Monumentale 2003

Andrea Branzi Thesis project: Attrezzature per il tempo libero, 1965 Pattern for an architectural model

Archizoom and Superstudio Superarchitettura, 1965 Pattern for an exhibition scenography, Pistoia

Enzo Mari Il Traffico: Week end, 1967 Poster for a carboard folder

Enzo Mari Il Traffico: Non ci sono alternative, 1967 Poster for a carboard folder

Archizoom Dreambed: Presagio di Rose, 1967 Textile design for a bed, Poltronova

Archizoom Safari, 1967 Textile design for a couch, Poltronova

Archizoom Safari, 1967 Study for a textile design for a couch, Poltronova

Archizoom Teatro Impossibile: Teatro della forma premeditata in ambiente unico, 1968 Pattern for an installation

Ettore Sottsass Utitled, 1968 Pattern for a ceramic tile

Beginning with the analysis of a drawing by Aldo Rossi—made for the 1974 competition for a student residence in Trieste, and bearing the evocative title La vita calda (The Warm Life)—we embarked on a journey through a constellation of recurring elements in his architecture, particularly those that populated his early works of the time.

104

We began to gather fragments: some explicitly present in the drawing, others merely whispered by its forms. These were then woven together with objects drawn from other contemporary projects by Rossi, like echoes in dialogue across time.

105

Proper objects, as they were known roughly until halfway through the 21st century, disappeared and were replaced by a new kind of objects. Similar to film props, these agglomerations of atoms multiplied exponentially thanks to the extraordinary possibilities offered by MIDA, a highly sophisticated three-dimensional printing technology.

128

These new things produced by MIDA, identical to the previously existing objects in terms of appearance, were pure commodities. They came directly from knowledge without passing through use. Design, or more precisely its material, experimental and practical component, vanished in just a few years.

129

From, Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, 2014 Lena Deggelmann and Lukas Mühle

158

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