Giving a small collection of architectural designs the label “fantasies” seems an odd thing when so many building designs don’t go further than the planning stage: Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile-high skyscraper is as much a fantasy as the unbuilt towers of London or any of the losing designs from the world’s many architectural competitions. Fantasie di architettura: schizze e prospettive (1920) is a portfolio of 60 plates by Aldo Avati, an architect and stage designer from Bologna whose designs are more fanciful than overtly fantastic. The introductory note refers to “the magician Piranesi” whose architectural caprices, especially his Carceri d’Invenzione, cast long shadows across all the arts. Piranesi’s influence is certainly evident here, in the views through huge ramparts and stone arches, the flights of stairs and dramatic lighting. Some of the views wouldn’t be out of place in this collection of drawings and paintings by an earlier generation of Italian stage designers.
Note: Although the book is titled “Part One” there doesn’t seem to have been a part two.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The other Carceri
• Fantaisies Architecturales by Henri Mayeux
• Temples for Future Religions by François Garas
Forms are gigantic, you can barely see a men figures yet somehow these fantasies are so restful to look at. When I see Chernikhov’s fantasies (his book is translated as “architectural fictions”) https://neverwasmag.com/2020/03/the-art-of-yakov-chernikhov/ I get a very different feeling
Amazing. I feel awe! Thanks for posting these JC.
Genrikh: It’s true, the structures are huge but never feel threatening, although they could be if more shadows were added. Piranesi did this with his own imaginary prisons, adding shadows, bars and torture devices to views that weren’t so different to his other architectural speculations.
Thanks for the Chernikhov link, I hadn’t seen anything of his before!
these are so stunning. i’ve been researching lately about what makes drawn architecture compelling (vs not) and the line work and pulling-through-ness is really hard to do. appreciate you posting as always!