Since 1970, based in an isolated building situated on the peninsula

of Posillipo, Pica Ciamarra Associati (www.pcaint.eu) has acted as

a laboratory of architectural and urban design which has gradually

incorporated new members and new energies over the time: using

a multidisciplinary approach, the roots of the architectural practice

lie in the intensive theoretical and practical work begun in the early

1960s by Massimo Pica Ciamarra. Since then the practice has been

marked by a continuous relationship with Le Carré Bleu - Feuille

internationale d'architecture and leading members of the cultural

milieu of Team 10: this has led to constant attention to everything

that lies beyond form, to the relation ship with contexts that also

include nonspatial contexts, and to high levels of integration and

dialectical discussion. According to Pica Ciamarra Associati, a

design transcends the approaches of a single sector, providing

simultaneous solutions to contradictory requirements, combining

utopia and practicality. The poetics of the fragment: it mediates

between architecture and the urban dimension; some designs also

have the aim of becoming absorbed within a context as 'informed

fragments'.

This monograph is the result of an intensive period of work and

consists of two interacting parts. It stems from research into the

archive of the studio Pica Ciamarra and conversation with the members

of the architectural practice. Organised diachronically, the book

tells the long story, unfolding over a period of over fifty years of a

team of Neapolitan architects and designers, who have maintained

the lively spirit of the practice which is still geared towards the future.

The textual and iconographic account tells a story and offers

an interpretation that highlight the vibrant atmosphere of the studio,

based on a consistency of thought and action, and fuelled by an

interest in many different forms of knowledge. The contextualisation

of the events related to the studio, as they unfolded over time, is

wideranging, coherent and connotative.

Antonietta Iolanda Lima, professor of history of architecture at

the University of Palermo, has always tried, through theory, teaching

and design, to disseminate the importance of history which

can embracing innovation and tradition to an equal degree, forming

a new architectural language. According to her view of architecture,

history and design are closely connected, a 'single entity' as

is reflected by her career. Since the 1980s, her academic work has

gained increasing importance, a way of avoiding narrow sectoral

approaches in the training of future architects, offering a holistic

stance of the history of architecture and an architecture that contributes

to shaping critical thought and a thriving cultural life