In this project, many archetypical themes of Vittorio Mazzucconi’s works are present and intermingled:
- the Ark, proposed in so many projects for Paris and other French cities, as well as in in Athens, Florence, Copenhagen,
Berlin, Rome etc. It’s the archetype of the sacred vessel – an Ark of Salvation – whose sacred significance is also connected to an interpretation of the dramatic epoch we are living in.
- the Pyramid, connected with the sacred vessel, as the ancient Egypt teaches us, while the fact of reversing the pyramid suggests the urge for a spiritual opening and no more the vertex of a political power. This principle can be found in many Mazzucconi’s works, from his project for the Tete-Defense in Paris to the new buildings designed for the Florence City Centre, and finally in the great Palatine Pyramid in Rome.
- the Spiral which is the secret movement that inspires all this projects, from the Flower of the new Florence City Centre to the Ark of the Cathedral, in which the interior spaces raise as a spiral, at the resemblance of an interior harmony and of the universe itself.
- the relationship between a new building and an ancient monument adjacent to it, honoured as the historical protagonist of the site. Even this is a constant element of the architect’s works, and finds an explanation in a sense of mysterious identification, almost a reincarnation. One can see this process in many projects, like the Ark of the Halles in Paris, the Auditorium of Nancy, the New Agora in Athens, the Florence Flower, the Palatine Pyramid. The Milan Cathedral Ark, with its pregnant relationship with the Duomo, is an expression of the same impulsion.
We mention also the book The City in the Image and Resemblance of Man in which Mazzucconi, from 1966, designed a high ideal for Milan development. It’s interesting to notice that the long reflections this book carries on about Milan had begun from a first study about the Piazza del Duomo, to which Mazzucconi contributes now with the new project, thus closing the circle of a life and its dedication.
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