SPAZIO N°2

The second chapter is entirely dedicated to SPAZIO No. 2 and to Moretti’s editorial titled ‘Genesis of Forms from the Human Figure.’ The chapter opens with an Italian-to-English translation of Moretti’s theoretical text. In his second editorial, Moretti identifies the human body as the generating element and measure of every expressive form. In doing so, he deliberately places himself in the line traced by classical culture, from Vitruvian man, through Alberti’s Concinnitas, Milizia’s anthropometrism, to modernist functionalism with its existential minimum, passing through Lecorbuserian research on the harmonic relationship between man and the world of the Modulor. Within this framework of references, the translation of Moretti’s editorial will be followed by an essay of critical commentary ‘Discussion Around Architecture and Human Figure,’ in which, starting from the classical Greek-Roman tradition, the positions expressed at an international level in the same years will be analysed, referring to the debate that took place in 1951, the year of publication of SPAZIO, at the Milan Triennale during the conference titled ‘La Divina proporzione.’ With these assumptions, the essay proposes to analyse and reorganise Moretti’s discourse on the theme of proportional relationships between man, architecture, and the world, with the aim of systematising them, developing the interrelations and evolutions of the relationship between architecture and the human body throughout history up to contemporary times. The chapter is closed by the iconographic documentation containing reproductions of the articles in their original layout, which provides valuable support for researchers all over the world.