L’architettura, la città e la creatività del grande numero : tre mostre di Giancarlo De Carlo

In 1951, at the 9th Milan Triennale, Giancarlo De Carlo curated with Giuseppe Samonà and Ezio Cerutti the Spontaneous Architecture Exhibition aimed at “discovering, recording, illustrating with drawings and photographs, the most interesting episodes of popular architecture”; in 1954, at the 10th Milan Triennale, he presented with Carlo Doglio and Ludovico Quaroni the Urban Planning Exhibition, which emphasized the need to involve multiple actors, including citizens, in the analysis and in the project of the city; in 1968, at the 14th Milan Triennale, he directed The Large Number International Exhibition, which was destroyed by demonstrators two hours after its inauguration. Looking at the three exhibitions in sequence, they draw a progressive path that starts from the observation of the architecture of the people, proceeds to harshly attack the current instruments of city building for their dogmatic and non-participatory character, and culminates in the construction of a body of design experiences that empower the creativity of the large number