“Architettura e/o Rivoluzione” up at the Castle. A Self-Convened Conference in Turin (April, 25-27, 1969)

This paper aims to analyse an unrecognized episode that occurred in Turin at the height of the 1968 protests. The conference was organized at the Faculty of Architecture by the “Committee of assistants”, with the support of colleagues and students from the humanities and science faculties, and it coincided with the 1969 celebrations in memory of the liberation of Italy from the Nazi-Fascists. Many important guests took part to this event: architects such as Archigram, Architecture Principe, Utopie, Yona Friedman, Archizoom, Paolo Soleri and Aldo Giurgola, and people involved in the debate such as Gianni Vattimo, Carlo Olmo, Gian Mario Bravo and Aimaro Isola. The three dense days were scrupulously documented in minutes published by the magazine Marcatré. Apart from them, in this paper other sources have been investigated: unpublished documents, direct testimonies and echoes of the event published in national and international magazines of the time. As one of the few occasions to link categories such as Utopia and Revolution, the conference provides a glimpse of both the euphoric atmosphere and the uncertainty surrounding the social and political role of the architects and the design. In their speeches, the guests brought up themes such as the incipient ecological crisis, the criticism of the western capitalist city and the contamination with non-architectural disciplines. All the contradictions in the political confrontation and in the professional scene emerged from the ensuing debate, which included even harsh discussions about the use of ideologies and political assessments. All these items developed in the subsequent paths taken by the protagonists.