“Sunspace” Creative studio

In Guido Ceronetti’s eyes, Genoa – a city of sheer slopes, houses with warm slate roofs perched on cliff tops, and treasure troves hidden behind mansions along its dark central streets – is a superb enigma, determined to keep for itself the gifts received from on high. Indeed, Genoa does seem the most enigmatic of Italian cities. During the time of its greatest prosperity, it was known as Genoa “The Haughty”. Yet even at its most powerful, the city never flaunted its wealth. Still today, it presents as unassuming, self-effacing, even diffident.
The architecture practice caarpa is from Genoa. Its members (architects Marta Carraro, Francesco Forni, Alessandro Parodi, Fabrizio Polimone, Valeria Arena and Marta Bozzano) are part of the new chapter in Italian architecture intent on reasserting the continuity of approach that previous generations tried – with little grace and even less success – to undermine. In fact, recent years have seen Genoa’s architecture rediscover itself thanks to a vibrant architecture faculty open to an informed eclecticism and proud to be part of an equally eclectic modern tradition peopled by the likes of Franco Albini, Ignazio Gardella (designer of the beautiful architecture faculty), Giancarlo de Carlo, Renzo Piano, 5+1AA and baukuh, together with many other architects whose professionalism is less aggressive than what we see in Rome and less elitist than what is coming out of Milan. In Genoa, the work of these designers does not aim for a wow effect; appreciation comes gradually. In striking contrast, however, the city’s central Piazza Ferrari hosts a singular cornerstone of Italian architecture: Aldo Rossi’s completion of the Carlo Felice Theater, a monumental child-like construction in a city whose buildings tend to sit comfortably side by side, never trying to steal the scene but rather accepting to be part of the backdrop. We still remember Bruno Zevi’s...

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