The eccentric outsider. Or why Reyner Banham did not consider Giuseppe Samonà’s mega-project for the University of Cagliari

Abstract

In 1976 Reyner Banham codified megastructure according to its mere pragmatism and lack of ideology, the essential qualities given by the British contribution – from Cedric Price to Archigram and their celebration of technology for a nomadic homo ludens. On this point he contrasted the Italian mega-architecture of the same period, dismissing it for its political collusions and figurative anxiety. While it is a truism that the postwar Italian architectural discourse was imbued in political ideology, Banham’s dismissal purposely misses out the intricacies of a period still awaiting thorough international reconsideration besides few recognised highlights of theorisation. By reviewing a neglected project whose gigantism is second to none of Banham’s examples – Giuseppe Samonà’s University of Cagliari – this essay digs into a chapter that ultimately reclaims its nature as outsider within the phenomenon of megastructure.