Review: Radical Design

Radical Design was the latest in a number of shows, including a special exhibition at the 1996 Architecture Biennale in Venice, devoted to the “radicals” of the 1960s and 1970s.¹ That exhibition made clear that the “radical” approach did not concentrate on objects exclusively, but was in fact rather expansive: “from the spoon to the city.”² 

In the beginning, Radical Design was an informal network, consisting primarily of young Italian architects who had forged friendships over their shared interests.³ Lacking building contracts, they began experimenting on a 1:1 scale, producing objects in practices that straddled the lines between design, art, and theory. This plainly adhered...