Frac Centre revisits Ugo La Pietra's radical architecture

The Frac Centre, directed by Marie-Ange Brayer, has published a book revisiting the work of Milanese artist-architect Ugo La Pietra. Trained as a painter, La Pietra cites influences from Fontana, Group Zero, and Kiesler. Since the 1960s, he has investigated space, body, and environment with a critical approach rivaling Archizoom and Superstudio. His thinking, rooted in emancipation, marks an anthropological turn in architecture, rethinking the architect's role entirely. He invented tools and methods to disrupt territory physically, engaging the body to foster awareness of how individuals can 'inhabit the city.' His 'beneficial conflict' concept led to devices like 'Immersions' (isolation and resistance of bodies) and 'Unbalancing Systems' (portable modules creating spatial imbalance), serving as means of knowledge, decoding, and provocation against power and its spatial organization. The book, titled 'Habiter la ville,' includes text by Christophe Kihm.