Backstage Architecture is a collection of projects that represents an original panorama of architecture on a global level across a network of professionals.  In it are the names and contacts of architects under 40 from forty-five different countries, one per country, each selected and presented by a referee in the book Worldwide Architecture (brand UTET Scienze Tecniche).

A new simplicity Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi

If we were to define the complex phenomenon of the Star System, we could say that it was launched by a generation of architects born around 1944, that it began to emerge in 1983, and that it began to break down in 2001. Rem Koolhaas, Tom Mayne, Bernard Tschumi and Massimiliano Fuksas were all born in 1944. This fact is not irrelevant, because it allows us to affirm that we are talking about a generation conceived during the Second World War, and thus almost genetically equipped with an energy, or at least a survival instinct, unknown to other generations.
In 1983, Bernard Tschumi won the competition for the Parc de la Villette in Paris with a conceptually layered project that marked a significant innovation in architectural forms, at that time dominated by postmodernism. The park project was not unlike the one submitted by another professor from the Architectural Association, Rem Koolhaas. This demonstrated, in turn, that Tschumi’s project was not the exploit of an isolated genius, but the result of research shared by a new generation of architects. In 1983, Zaha Hadid won the competition for The Peak in Hong Kong, bringing a breath of fresh air to architectural circles, as noted later by Peter Cook, who commented: “Architecture is on the wing again, at last!”
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The 2000s generation works behind the scenes Bernardina Borra//Giampiero Sanguigni

The generation of architects that completed their education and training and began their careers in the decade between 2000 and 2010 has come of age in a period that will long be remembered for events related to politics, the economic crisis and religious extremism. Yet in architecture it will not be easy to put to paper the history of what is really happening, for a slow but increasingly widespread change of mentality is taking place behind the scenes.
More and more architects of this generation are attempting to interpret the period by mirroring it back in positive terms through the practice of their profession. A tacit agreement is being disseminated that promotes modesty as the new koiné and establishes basic standards and conditions for every project.
Alongside the confirmed egocentrism of today’s star architects who continue to reap the benefits of a more favourable era, a new generation is developing that looks with scepticism on the hyper-capitalistic market and cities built around icons. They are dealing with the current situation in a direct and pragmatic manner. They have a new sense of commitment that stays clear of empty ideologies that lead to a “suspension of judgement”.
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Worldwide Architecture The next generation




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