Roberto Fabbri
Roberto Fabbri is an architect and researcher. He is currently an associate professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises of Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. He graduated cum laude from the University of Florence and received his Ph.D. from the University of Bologna.
In the same university is taught architectural studio design and exhibition design from 2001 to 2010. He was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gulf Studies in Kuwait in 2013-2014 and in the same year taught architectural design at the American University of Kuwait. From 2016 to 2021, he was teaching at the Department of Arts, Architecture and Design at the University of Monterrey, Mexico.
He alternates professional practice with theoretical studies. From 2010 to 2016 he was a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, in support of the museum institution Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah in Kuwait for rehabilitating museum spaces and designing exhibitions. His research interests focus on modern and contemporary architectural design. He contributed to several international seminars and conferences, published on international magazines (such as Domus, d'Architettura, ANATKE and Faces) and recently released a book on the architectural work of Max Bill and the first systematic study on the modern heritage of Kuwait.
In the same university is taught architectural studio design and exhibition design from 2001 to 2010. He was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gulf Studies in Kuwait in 2013-2014 and in the same year taught architectural design at the American University of Kuwait. From 2016 to 2021, he was teaching at the Department of Arts, Architecture and Design at the University of Monterrey, Mexico.
He alternates professional practice with theoretical studies. From 2010 to 2016 he was a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, in support of the museum institution Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah in Kuwait for rehabilitating museum spaces and designing exhibitions. His research interests focus on modern and contemporary architectural design. He contributed to several international seminars and conferences, published on international magazines (such as Domus, d'Architettura, ANATKE and Faces) and recently released a book on the architectural work of Max Bill and the first systematic study on the modern heritage of Kuwait.
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Books by Roberto Fabbri
Graphic layout by Abdalla Abdelrahman
Softcover
8 x 10 in. | 20 x 26 cm
416 pages, 1000 illustrations
ISBN 978-3-03768-166-4
Spring 2016
• The first systematic analysis of Modern Architecture in Kuwait
• 150 projects fully illustrated and analyzed
• Original drawings and pictures as well as contemporary photographical survey
• All projects from prominent international and local designers
• Designers and contractor biographical section
• Timeline relating to the regional context
• Unknown hidden treasures, including design competition entries and unrealized projects
From the late 1940s to the late 1980s Kuwait experienced an extraordinary social and civic transformation, deeply reflected in its urban environment. The complete demolition of the Old City centre and the comprehensive redesign of the urban form, together with the creation of the new neighbourhood units, catalysed the attention of major international designers working in synergy with local firms and authorities and leaving on the ground important examples of late Modern Architecture. Over a span of 40 years the process of reshaping Kuwait involved designers such as Kenzo Tange, Alison and Peter Smithson, Georges Candilis, Alfred Roth, Sayyed Karim, Hassan Fathy, Dar Al-Handasah, Mohammed Makiya, Rifat Chadirji, Basil Spence, BBPR, Pier Luigi Nervi, Felix Candela, I.M. Pei, SOM and TAC just to name a few.
As Kuwait gained independence and autonomy, the necessity of a new landscape to represent the freshly founded state grew high. A new urban environment was envisioned for a new state, therefore architects found here the possibility to expand their professional horizons and the challenge to compose an entire city, building by building, almost from scratch.
By following the professional trajectories of major practitioners and by reading the presence of the building in the urban context at the architectural scale, the study offered in this book examines and analyses a wide selection of buildings, finally presented as an architectural atlas.
The repertoire of more than 150 projects, spanning of over 40 years, is revealed as a collection of specimens, selected for their specific qualitative aspects, as examples of particular design methodologies or typologies, or else for their different adaptations to the severity of local environmental conditions.
This publication, supported by the prominent Kuwaiti institutions Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, is based on several years of research, which included on-site visits, photographic surveys and interviews with architects, planners, contractors, historians, and former city officials. The analysis was also supported by extensive archival investigation, which provided old city plans, drawings, original photographs, film footages, correspondences, legal documents, contractors’ brochures, architectural and construction press, journals, local magazines, popular press and a range of other documents.
The post-WWII environment along with political and artistic solidarity in the emerging Arab World promoted an exchange of ideas and individuals throughout the region. This edited collection uncovers the regional context that established the modern practice of architecture and planning between the 1940s and 1980s. The editors of "Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949–1989" selected a diverse group of contributors from both Kuwait and abroad to produce expertly researched and crafted essays and arguments. The interviews conducted by the editors between 2012 and 2016 appear as transcripts, while other relevant published materials produced in or on Kuwait from 1949 until 1989 are also featured. In their own essays, the editors explore broader topics such as the political and socio-economic process of modernisation in the country, the educational and professional establishment of the architectural practice in the region, and the development of a contemporary construction industry in Kuwait. Also, the volume’s introduction includes an atlas that traces the movement of architects, planners, and projects for and from Kuwait, mapping a series of unprecedented reciprocities between geographical, economic, political, and social realities in the Arab World. The second collection expands far beyond the first volume, challenging different narratives while also connecting divergent spheres to offer readers a critical look at a local perspective based on a regional context.
Le maître suisse a été un chercheur acharné de l’Espace, dans toutes ses déclinaisons possibles. L’Espace, ici, est entendu comme milieu anthropique ; comme un lieu construit par l’homme pour y héberger ses propres événements quotidiens, mais aussi comme un lieu de la pensée et des aspirations humaines.
Tous ses projets, des toiles aux architectures, sont des quêtes sur de nouvelles conformations spatiales et sur leurs corrélations avec l’homme. C’est sur la base de ces prémisses, que se meut la rédaction de ce texte qui présente les projets, ou les événements, non de façon chronologique mais dans un ordre qui tend à démontrer – au fur et à mesure – les concepts qui sont à la base des recherches composites de Max Bill.
Le premier chapitre le situe dans un cadre historique lu à travers des thématiques. Le deuxième chapitre analyse, en revanche, les toiles et les constructions « bidimensionnelles » dans la perspective d’extraire les principes régulateurs de la composition qui seront ensuite la clé de lecture pour déchiffrer ses oeuvres architectoniques. L’architecture est le sujet principal du troisième chapitre: dans le cadre d’une production architectonique aussi vaste qu’inconnue, certains projets ont été analysés, choisis pour leur « leçon spatiale ». La quatrième section analyse l’utilisation de l’Espace dans les sculptures de Max Bill afin de comprendre le passage des géométries euclidiennes à des espaces plus complexes.
INDICE
1. Max Bill, temi e traiettorie
2. La costruzione logica dello spazio
3. Percorsi italiani
Il viaggio negli anni della formazione
L’impegno politico antifascista con Ignazio Silone
Architetti italiani in Svizzera
Wiederaufbau e il Primo congresso nazionale sulla ricostruzione
La Triennale mancata: realtà nuova alla T8
Arte astratta e concreta a palazzo ex-Reale
VII CIAM Bergamo 1949
Divina Proporzione: convegno alla IX Triennale
Accordeon
4. Quattro progetti
Lo spazio e gli oggetti
La sezione svizzera alla VI Triennale di Milano, 1936
La matrice dello spazio
La sezione svizzera alla IX Triennale di Milano, 1951
Un contenitore per le arti
Il padiglione svizzero alla Biennale di Venezia, 1951
“Une affaire culturelle”
Il museo di arte contemporanea. Firenze, 1979-80
Bibliografia