Valerio Paolo Mosco's 'Frugalità in architettura' launches LetteraVentidue's new series

Valerio Paolo Mosco's book 'Frugalità in architettura' (Frugality in Architecture) inaugurates the 'Temi' series by LetteraVentidue Edizioni. The volume, featuring the author's own drawings of works like Gehry's Casa in Los Angeles and Smiljan Radic's Casa in San Clemente, Chile, explores frugality as a response to the end of hyper-capitalism and the 2007 crisis. Mosco, professor at Iuav University of Venice, argues that architecture can no longer ignore ethics and limited resources. The book references Heidegger's analysis of Van Gogh's shoes, and cites Emma Tagliacollo (La Sapienza, Rome) who distinguishes frugality from poverty. Examples include the Ciudad Abierta in Chile, built by students and professors from the Catholic University of Valparaíso in the 1970s. The text also draws on Ernst Jünger's concept of the anarch, and the epigraphs quote St. Francis and Henry David Thoreau. Published in Syracuse, 2023, 124 pages, €9.90.