Process

SERIES: Architecture in drawings that visualise and construct the habitus residing in the architect’s mind - Under the aegis of Orazio Carpenzano, Head of the Faculty of Architecture, Università La Sapienza in Rome.
SPEAKER: Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo
DATE: Thursday 27 April, 6 pm 
PLACE: Palazzo Venezia, Sala del Refettorio

A ream of paper flying through the air with a man pursuing it – a work by Jeff Wall as well as a painting by Hokusai. This image illustrates the process triggered when it comes to lending shape to a new project. Some of the sheets of paper have already been written on and some are blank. The moment they fall to the ground, you realise that some contain measurements, standards, notes, desires and requests. You are forced to examine, separate, classify and record all of them. You pinpoint the differences, establish links and separate the data, organising them in folders. The whole framework becomes more precise and then you open the folder of blank sheets. You have to  determine a strategic solution that resolves, correlates and organises the contents of the folders of filled sheets. At this point, the project takes shape and every stage of exploration requires more checks. In the end, there are no more blank sheets, only project sheets. Constructing begins. Constructing ends at the moment of final verification when the building on paper has taken shape and begins to fulfil the purpose for which it was conceived.

Biography

Between graduating and 1980, Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo focused primarily on teaching, flanking Prof. Franco Minissi on the Restoration course of the Università La Sapienza in Rome. In 1980 she moved to Turin where  she worked with Fiat Engineering on a project to rebuild old town centres in Basilicata. Since 1986, she has lived in Sicily and in 2005 and 2012 won the RIBA EU Awards. In 2012 she was awarded the Gold Medal for her Career by the Triennale di Milano. In 2008 she was one of five architects invited to participate in a competition to curate and design the exhibition in the Padiglione Italiano at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In 2016, the jury of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice awarded her a Special Mention for her installation Onore Perduto in the Reporting from the Front exhibition curated by Alejandro Aravena. In 2018, she participated in the FREESPACE exhibition curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary degree in Civil Engineering-Architecture by the Università degli Studi di Catania. In 2021, she won the INARCH Nazionale Career Award, joined the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and won the Triennale di Milano-MAXXI Italian Architecture Prize for the Best Building.

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