Some hilarious controversy is taking place in Milan over its architecture especially in planning the Expo 2015. We’re asking ourselves what the city will look like, as we also wonder why Renzo Piano goes to design and build in Japan, while the Japanese come and build in Italy.

With some famous architects making their contributions to Milan, including Gae Aulenti and Vittorio Gregotti, this time it’s Daniel Libeskind’s turn to enter the fray of Milanese architecture.

With great furore he created the curved tower in Milan, which unfortunately didn’t please everyone, including the prime minister Berlusconi. It appears our Silvio has now become an expert in architecture and has called for the skyscraper to be straightened a little.

The famous writer Umberto Eco has also weighed into the debate over the distinctive tower. The best selling author of “The Name of the Rose”, with his subtle irony, has declared in the Corriere della Sera:

“Milan is full of people with a crooked ‘member’: there will one more who will take some viagra.”

Our friends at 02blog, the bloggers of Milan, say that often Umberto Eco hits the nail on the head. How could he not be right on one of the many expressions in his book, “Bustina di Minerva“?

“Once when someone needed to do some research, he would go to the library, find ten titles on the subject and read them all: now he pushes a button on his computer, receives a bibliography of 10,000 titles and gives up.”

So is Eco and his phallic theory right or wrong? It’s true that often in architecture whoever is ahead is the one breaking the mould and realising great masterpieces. Sometimes judgment does not come immediately and only time will tell success or failure. Architects of the 20th century have given us some marvellous masterpieces and also some colossal ugliness. Such a marked intervention into this skyscraper is perhaps a little risky - will the result be positive and should we be attempting it?

(no votes)

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