Starting from today, and until April 28, the HP le Studio Gallery in Paris is offering a series about Italian rationalism focusing on the figure of Ignazio Gardella. The Studio will put on show fifteen works from the Italian architect, who aimed to convert the Milanese upper-middle class to modernity. To make his fellow citizens understand that, he used to adapt classical objects to current needs. The armchair pair ‘Digamma’ from 1957 which opens the exhibition is a concrete example of this concept. The artist seeks to stray from the “Italian-ness” which can be seen in the works of other Italian architects. So as not to lapse into a folklore style, he draws his inspiration in craft tradition. Although he does not wish to imitate those who preceded him, he does not reject his origins. This is a principle of rationalism: starting a new without rejecting the past. Gardella comes from four generations of architects who worked in Genoa then in Milan. He obtained his engineering degree in 1928 and applied the principles of rationalism to which he quickly converted in 1932, when he built the extension for the Villa Borletti in Milan.
