Mario Botta, Paolo Crepet, Giuseppe Zois Dove abitano le emozioni.

La felicit e i
luoghi in cui viviamo Einaudi, Torino, 2007, pp. 173.
A book in which psychology and architecture meet,
outlining the ideal and the real path of the places where we live: the home,
schools, offices, bars, places
Members of the game and sport, hospitals, places of worship, prisons, roads,
cemeteries. The two guests
tell the story of "twelve places of life" means the spaces in which people move,
work, have fun and,
above all, they gets excited. Because the colors, the light and the layout of the
rooms depend largely
part of our emotions.
Architecture and psychiatry in comparison, in an interesting trialogue. Giuseppe
Zois,
journalist and writer, he asks, with sober tones and simple language, an architect
World-renowned architect Mario Botta, and the psychiatrist and sociologist Paul
Crepet, trying (well
successful) to create, through the emergence of the two professional compared,
for
an interesting reflection on the living spaces that each of us lives, starting from
the observation
how our emotions depend largely on the physical characteristics of
places in which we experience our existence.
"Two different worlds, seemingly distant, concrete and visible one that arises from
architect's pencil; impalpable, light and never finished exploration of the human
soul.
Went different ways, but ultimately meet in the place where you draw, travel,
emotions live "(p. V).
What the text offers is a journey between past and present, a past that, although
markedly
outlined by material poverty, generously allowed the wealth of
spirit and here is compared with a present with undefined contours, where reign
often the uncertainty and confusion and "where we try to catch a glimpse of the
horizon
a possible future in which live more harmoniously in our homes and with our
emotions "(p. VI).
Are the emotions, then, the fulcrum around which the whole conversation.
emotions
of living, which Botta expressed in volume and forms of his buildings, and
emotions
to live, that Crepet helps us to recognize and, where possible, to understand.
The emotions in places and places.
The places of living, first of all the cities, with their houses, including walk
listening

memory entries. According to Botta, one of the crucial aspects of the city is able
to coreviews
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municate through suggestion and memory of its spaces, causing thereby
it becomes collective and accompany us into the narrative of the story. Crepet
continues
noting that in the suburbs often lurks the paradox of solitude:
"You are not alone, but you feel alone" (p. 5). While in a square, even if you are
alone, the feeling
loneliness is not perceived: "you company the echo of beauty, of history" (p.
5).
The dwelling places, where you learn the basics of living. To the question
if and how the architecture has contributed in giving happiness to the house,
those who populate its interior,
Botta says that the history of man is the mirror also his home,
that since the existence of man is the need to have a shelter, protection,
and wanting a closer look, the story of the house interprets the history of
mankind (p. 37).
The psychological side, by using the words of Crepet, brings out the interesting
link between the living spaces, understood in the physical sense, and individual
identity.
Items in the game are to know who you are today, produced by who you were,
that is,
traditions, roots, whose summation produces the who you are, that is, their own
social project.
Unlike people, like the American, who have not known a similar path
having conquered the soil in pioneering sense, and for this reason incapable of
understanding
traditions, roots, and to grasp the concept of remote identity, we have well
clear sense of when we think of our homes and our villages.
When we talk about it "it is like there unrolling inside the century-old memory" (p.
41). In
those places "born identity that never dies. You'll end up in Rome, in New York or
anywhere
in the world, but you always bring in the great little town of your universe "
(P. 42).
The places of learning, primarily the school. A school that suffers from many ills,
which
It should draw roads to the future and instead limps. A school that is still very
notional,
that should change but fatigue (p. 71).
A school, for Crepet, should be enriched with the added value of creativity
and experimentation. For the psychiatrist, every sector of social life, and in the
first place
that of education, has to deal with the new generations and inevitably compete
with the future: "if there is no oxygen renewal it is likely asphyxia" (p. 71). A

school that should be able to fully grasp the technological input, which should
get the most out without glorifying technology. A school that, always according
the psychiatrist, "must be built in a different way because its places today can
not
contain innovation "(p. 72); that should have different spaces, the light of the
new (different) generations. That new generation to populate both equally of
teachers, with a different formation to make them more open to modernity.
"The possibility of change exists", Crepet says, "as long as you have the courage
to face
the change [...] We will be a company less predictable if we have the will to
investing resources with critical and self-criticism "(p. 72).
A school that, for Botta, is much more of a container through which to distribute
culture
and improve education. Botta uses the beautiful metaphor of Louis Kahn, who
imagine the school as two men speak under a tree. A metaphor "that
It binds the importance of the act of communication with the place dedicated to
the Year (the tree
understood as microclimate, as protection). To recover in architectural terms this
concept, construction should aim at an extreme beauty, to a direct functionality,
in
an ability to characterize its function than the other institutions "(p. 73).
The places of work, more and more full of technology, not only in a physical
sense but also
emotional. "There is an information technology-related creativity" (p. 95), Crepet
says: now there
It is no longer any architect or designer who designs without computer. The
computer has become
a kind of "project perimeter, constructive, we are in the phase of a different
conception
emotional "(p. 95). The reference is inevitably to all that is classified as
technological communication, primarily to the language used by young people in
the sms and
in email. "The emotional icons (the so-called emoticons) that are branched over
the years",
continues the psychiatrist, "they represent a new language and purely emotional;
we see and we run ourselves into this new orthographic lexicon: brackets, dots
and
other signs to express a feeling, to say that you love ... "(p. 95). a transformation
gradual but intense that experienced by technology: first dry, cold, rational
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nal, gradually it becomes emotional, almost contaminated by human
peculiarities. This is
Crepet for a ray of light, a glimmer of hope, by which cancel the antithesis
Technology / emotionality.
An idea from the most pessimistic tones the architect, that thinking of his own
experience

design of offices from the gray and monotonous, surrounded by computers

alienated, he does not feel at all reassured; his thoughts are, above all,
impoverishment of interpersonal relationships. "The need for tactile experience,
over
to that of an intellectual experience, "says Botta," could perhaps restore a
balance
to the need of the body in addition to that of the mind "(p. 94).
The places of travel, since the working trips. The need to move,
each with their own car, generates traffic jams, air deterioration,
increased neurosis: everything, as well as change the face of the city, inevitably
influences
the state of mind of those living in it. Then there is the idea of the car as a means
of
evasion, speed, and the car as a means by which gratify your own research
of emotions. And yet, the car as a symbol of comfort, the idea of freedom, when
then it is just slaves of progress and hectic life that flows on him.
Nearby points of desire, with the inevitable reference to consumerism. "I want a
once, "said Zois," revolved around a handful of shops, holes of a few meters,
however, able to fire the imagination. In small shops he was around,
from flour to the paper to make the sky of the crib, the confetti for the carnival.
Then the paths
of desire they have become highways. We persuaded that happiness
It is to have more things, with the results that we have under our eyes "(p. 116).
the provocation
launched by journalist he opens the gate to the psychiatrist's reflections
uncertainty that governs ominously the era of globalization and as a result
which we often takes refuge in the search label.
The desire of emotion as a father? Asks intrigued Zois. "It is difficult for new
generations have awareness of what emotions can offer, "he says
Crepet, "are orphan desires, having been children for whom it is granted
everything. Desire
It is what we lack, not the conquest of what is there. When a child by all, these
It gets used to be desired and therefore can not produce emotions "(p. 119).
The evasion places like the disco, which, with its hypnotic lights and loud music
It allows (maybe) to live the night as an escape from the everyday. You have
multiplied
freedoms for young people, it is deducted from the behavior and customs. The
last minute
looms: with very little money you can travel and learn about new places. that last
minute that increasingly compresses the time of the emotions. "We live a
syncopated life
from an emotional point of view, "says Crepet. It's the price we pay for progress.
There
ease of travel offered by reduced costs generates more fragmented emotional
idea, more
short, then less intense. It is the emotional planning that is depressed, then that
is the

nature of desire.
Place of fulfillment can also be a work of art or architectural figure, when
reaches the maximum of the mystery, the point at which people start to identify
with it
and let himself be invaded by it. The architecture, detects Botta, interacts with
the communities within
which its forms are expressed. Its forms testify to the time of culture
before they are born, recounting the transformations of the territory on which and
for which they arise.
Nearby points of lost time, ie those spaces of time taken to any function
production or at each end precisely defined. "For grandparents places of Lost
Time
were the spaces of storytelling, of remembering, of playing with the little ones,
the transmission
Memory grandchildren. In this sense the lost time was the time of real life,
as the time dedicated to love, to poetry "(p. 132).
Botta believes that the time does not exist, it is a pure convention. It considered
necessary
retrieve the size of the "dolce far niente", positively considering the time
idleness which rich source of reflections. A difficult recovery for those who, like
him, is
almost totally absorbed by the flow of the hectic everyday life.
For Crepet, educating should not mean filling of tasks, but let
between one task and the other there is the time, possibly not restricted. "Try to
imagine"
precise the psychiatrist, "the priority simultaneous need both to think,
contemplate,
meditate rather than if it were considered to think a high-function,
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It would include an applicant for a time but also a place other than those it holds
"
(P. 134).
Nearby points of belief, a time led by the church, the true heart of the
community,
place where everyone would meet. "The life of the community among the
throbbing in solid walnut benches.
The pulpit was the permanent school for all and remained until half a century
ago,
when television has taken its place "(p. 142).
"We have lost the ability to give meaning to our being in the world," he says
He regretted Zois, "demolishing philosophies and religions to make room for
pragmatism of each
kind". Crepet relates everything to global democracy in which we live and live
together,
done, this, that it has greatly complicated our value system.
The sacred place is a constant presence in human history, even traceable from

an architectural point of view. A place where everyone can recognize as well as in

their individuality, even in the community to share the experience. "Build
Today this space, "says Botta," is the architect bet, attempting to succeed
to still offer an emotion "(p. 145), meaning the emotion as a form through
which manifest themselves. Mark a threshold beyond which the interior is divided
by the world
exterior: This is the creation of sacred space. "The vanguards of the twentieth
century, "says Botta," have distorted the way we see and think about the canons
aesthetic, to live the ethical emotions. Now we must give new answers and the
idea
the sacred is an absolute and essential component that we must reformulate the
frailty
the current culture "(p. 145).
Nearby points of the disease, of what destroys us suddenly, without any
prediction,
within an existence hectic as that of modern life. So the reference
to hospitals, to criticism today for the considerable multiplication of the technical
component, in
expense of the psychological and human, increasingly weakened. A point that
was clearly visible
from the architectural point of view, primarily in the "swell of requests for
surfaces
diagnosis and therapy, compared to those reserved to the hospital "(p. 155).
"For every sensitive soul there comes a day when the fate paints apocalypse
of anguish, as if the heavens and the universe overthrew our despair "(p. 158):
through
the words of Pessoa, Zois went on to ask what happens to emotions when
such great uneasiness comes in our mind. "It happens that we know best," he
says
Crepet. "Intelligence is to perceive the evil, to ask why the evil we
hit. This does not mean surrendering to the pain, the civilization also develop
tools
and opportunities to address the drift "(p. 158).
The memorial sites and cemeteries, which "are open pages, is the country of
those who went
forward. They are places of death, and yet pulsing life "(p. 159).
Even cemeteries have changed and reflect our hectic life. "The time has
also accelerated the pace in a place where the clock is useless "(p. 159).
For Crepet death is a detail, notes that the memory we have of a person does not
consists of a photograph, but evolves with us, he lives with us. For him, the
cemeteries are "
circus of a detail, the emphasis of an accident "(p. 160).
For Botta, the cemetery could be, paradoxically, the most lively place to stand
the fleeting time of the actual live. It too is a constant in human history, a
a place dedicated to the memory of those who have already lived. A place that in
its structure a

Time was full testimony of the city of the living, "the commemorative and
monumental place
par excellence, where they found themselves expressions and architectural
typologies constructed
in the royal city. Today, on the contrary, places of death increasingly reflect
anonymity, the man is reduced to a number, and the cult of the dead inspires
awe, resonates far
from everyday concerns. The message is the tragic equality in the forward
destiny
of life. But sometimes it survives a hope .. "(p. 164).
And finally the places of hope. "If the emotion is especially something improvised,
unexpected, that pervades us, hope is a long wave, which begins and ends,
making
commute in each day. [...] Today we have a world of things, but we are poor
in. Perhaps it is true that we are becoming a bit 'all as the Monsignor Otto and
means of Federico Fellini: << Who told you to be happy? >>. Hope it will be
perhaps a little
exciting, but it is at least the aspiration of a light flight over a maze of anxieties "
(P. 167).
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How to merge emotions and happiness?
For Botta emotion it is the premise of hope, is the stimulus that awaits a possible
happiness. For him the places of hope exist everywhere, "are related to the
thread of life" (p.
172). We attend to the poorest populations dramas, where there is no premise
objective to improve the quality of life, "but the hope and calls
Life responds "(p. 172). The crisis in the birth rate is characteristic of prosperous
populations. "But the
wealth of a child is the certainty of a hope beyond ourselves "(p. 172).
For Crepet emotions are like a slow boat that takes us to the illusion of
be happy. But everyone knows that the time of happiness disappears and
reappears. "Happiness
but it was not trendy, yearning, something that touches your life but not your
own. IS
the simple fact that almost touches is enormous emotion "(p. 172).
Asked Zois "To make a film about emotions, who would you choose as a director,
actor and actress? ", the psychiatrist replied:" Federico Fellini, and actors such as
Anna Magnani,
extraordinary incarnation of the people who knew (knows?) join the life with the
impetus
Body and mind, and Marcello Mastroianni, for the melancholy elegance of its
intelligence
ironic "(p. 173).

"The need for tactile experience, over

to that of an intellectual experience, "says Botta," could perhaps restore

a balance
to the need of the body in addition to that of the mind "
We live a syncopated life
from an emotional point of view, "says Crepet. It's the price we pay for
progress. There
ease of travel offered by reduced costs generates more fragmented
emotional idea, more
short, then less intense. It is the emotional planning that is depressed,
then that is the
nature of desire.
Place of fulfillment can also be a work of art or architectural figure,
when
reaches the maximum of the mystery, the point at which people start to
identify with it
and let himself be invaded by it. The architecture, detects Botta,
interacts with the communities within
which its forms are expressed. Its forms testify to the time of culture
before they are born, recounting the transformations of the territory on
which and for which they arise.
Nearby points of lost time, ie those spaces of time taken to any function
production or at each end precisely defined. "For grandparents places of
Lost Time
were the spaces of storytelling, of remembering, of playing with the
little ones, the transmission
Memory grandchildren. In this sense the lost time was the time of real
life,
as the time dedicated to love, to poetry " Botta believes that the time
does not exist, it is a pure convention. It considered necessary
retrieve the size of the "dolce far niente", positively considering the
time
idleness which rich source of reflections. A difficult recovery for those
who, like him, is
almost totally absorbed by the flow of the hectic everyday life.