Modernity and Durability: Perspectives for the Culture of Design

The name Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani rings a big bell for my generation of American architects and academics who had a penchant for Italian contribution to architectural praxis during the late 70s. We benefitted enormously from the editorials published in magazines such as Casabella, Domus, and Lotus, in spite of, or because of, the overwhelming presence of “theory” in certain intellectual circles of Europe and America. Lampugnani was the editor-in-chief of the Italian architecture and design magazine, Domus (1990–94). The publication was one of the few to contribute to historico theoretical understandings of the crisis architecture faced after the Second World War. He was also among several Italian architects and academics who explored the tensions within architecture’s transitional period to Postmodernism, during a time when Modernism was totally rejected or considered fait accompli.