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Fueled by the idea of “Reclaiming that combination of tenacity and wonder that is the imagining, drawing, and construction of buildings,” The Superfluous and the Necessary. The Architecture of Barreca & La Varra is the second monograph about Milan architecture studio Barreca & La Varra published by THE PLAN Editions.
The architects see their profession as a constant oscillation between the temptations of the superfluous and the conventions of the necessary, but with the awareness that the superfluous sometimes becomes necessary, and the necessary is sometimes, and unexpectedly, superfluous. And the same can apply to books about architecture. Sixteen years after the foundation of Barreca & La Varra in Milan (although the two architects have now been collaborating for almost 30 years), in this second monograph about the studio, Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra “put their work in order” by admitting to its disorder.
In Italian with English on the facing pages, The Superfluous and the Necessary. The Architecture of Barreca & La Varra unfolds in an unexpected way, with its sequence of chapters inspired by the book Other Inquisitions, 1937–1952 by Jorge Luis Borges, in which the Argentine writer imagines a Chinese encyclopedia that lists and catalogues animal species. In 17 chapters, 262 illustrations, and 31,286 words, Barreca and La Varra themselves tell the story of 76 projects, inviting readers to either simply browse or study each building in depth.
In three hours, or even three minutes, you can read the book from the back, immerse yourself in the drawings and photographs, return to the introductory essay, or simply get lost in the posters that introduce each chapter. Like a walk in a city you’ve never visited, the book’s unstructured approach means that readers will make unexpected discoveries – exactly what the authors want to happen when people step inside their buildings.
"The city necessary acts in counterpoint to jobs that, as conceived, are never object but fragments to complete, grafts to intensify, elements that aspire to always having been there. [...] The superflous – not the useless, not the gratuitous – lies at the heart of what we do. The "superflous" is a way of touching (without necessarily overstepping) the boudary between portrait and caricature. [...] An open attitude toward architectural stylistic language informs everything we do. Our work is a continous effort to erect urban architecture, to meticulously explore the boundary between what is essential and what may usefully appear superflous".
Excerpt from the volume's foreword, by the designers
To be an architect is to embrace a constant to-and-fro between the temptations of the superfluous and the habits of the necessary, in the knowledge that the superfluous can sometimes become necessary and the necessary unexpectedly superfluous. This dy... Read More
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