Radical Disco: A Social, Political and Architectural Phenomenon by Callum Nolan

IMAGE CITATIONS:

Image 0: Space Electronic by Grupo 9999, 1969

Image 1: Workers demonstrating in front of the Fiat Factory, 1969

Image 2 (left): Interior of The Piper Club Rome, 1966

Image 3: Superarchitettura at Jolly2 Gallery, 1966

Image 4: The Continuous Monument by Superstudio, 1969

Image 5: No-Stop City Internal Landscapes by Archizo om, 1970

Image 6: Interior of Mach2 by Superstudio, 1967

Image 7: Interior of Mach2 by Superstudio, 1967

Image 8: Living Theatre Group Performing Paradise Lost at Space Electron ic, 1970

Image 9: Interior of Space Elec tronic by Gruppo 9999, 1969

Image 10: Lovers on a swing chair at Bamba Issa by UFO, 1970

Rosi, Manuela. “Space Electronic. Discoteca di Firenze". (2017). Wikipedia Commons. https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Space_Electronic_Firenze#/media/File:SpaceElectronicFirenze.jpg (Accessed January 1, 2021).

Photographer Unknown. “Organising at Fiat, 1969". (2009). Libcom. https://libcom.org/history/organis ing-fiat-1969 (Accessed January 2, 2021).

3c+t Fabrizio Capolei “The radical architects who designed the discos of post-war Italy." (January 6, 2016). The British Journal of Photography. https://www.1854.photography/2016/01/the-radical-archi tects-who-designed-the-discos-of-post-war-italy/. (Accessed December 15, 2020).

Poltronova. “Superarchitettura". (2018). Poltronova. https://www.poltronova.it/1966/12/04/superar chitettura-1966-3/ (Accessed December 23, 2020).

Superstudio. “The Radical Design Movement". (July 30, 2019). Speculative EDU. https://speculativeedu. eu/the-radical-design-movement/. (Accessed December 28, 2020).

Archizoom Associati. “Archizoom Associati, No-Stop City, Internal Landscapes, 1970". (April 19, 2011). Socks Studio. http://socks-studio.com/2011/04/19/archizoom-associati-no-stop-city-inter nal-landscapes-1970/. (Accessed December 28, 2020).

Superstudio. “Mach 2, 1969 by Superstudio". (June 7, 2019). MADHAS studio. https://madhasstudio. tumblr.com/post/185426869980/mach-2-1969-superstudio-in-an-old-basement-the. (Accessed December 28, 2020).

Fiumi, Fabrizio. “Orgies on a dancefloor: Space Electronic." (January 18, 2018). The Florentine. https://www.theflorentine.net/2018/01/18/space-electronic-flashback/. (Accessed December 31, 2020).

Gruppo 9999, courtesy of Carlo Caldini. “The radical architects who designed the discos of post-war Italy." (January 6, 2016). The British Journal of Photography. https://www.1854.photography/2016/01/ the-radical-architects-who-designed-the-discos-of-post-war-italy/. (Accessed December 15, 2020).

Binazzi, Lapo. “The radical architects who designed the discos of post-war Italy." (January 6, 2016). The British Journal of Photography. https://www.1854.photography/2016/01/the-radical-architects-whodesigned-the-discos-of-post-war-italy/. (Accessed December 15, 2020).

Image 1 (above): Workers demonstrating in front of the Fiat Factory, 1969

The Times

1.Ginsborg, Paul. “A History of Contempo rary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988". (January 1, 2003). St. Martin’s Griffin. ISBN1403961530.

2. Red Notes. “Italy 1977-78: Living with an Earthquake (A Red Notes Pamphlet)". (1978). Red Notes Press. pg 113117. ISBN 0906305004

3. Ginsborg. “A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988."

Beautiful buildings were destroyed, while rubble, debris and corpses lay abandoned in the street. Scarce food supply meant that dairy and meat products had to be purchased on the black market. Men in uniforms bearing insignia and combat boots prowled the streets, brutally beating those who stepped out of line. This was the reality of life in Italy during the Second World War and Fascist Regime. Following these cataclysmic events, Italy was a country struggling to rebuild itself economically, socially and culturally. The 60s and 70s in Italy were a period of great uncertainty and, as with most such periods, of great transformation. Student strikes occupied almost every Italian university in an effort to reform traditional capitalist society and increase class consciousness. Labour strikes and demonstrations across northern Italy led to increased wages and a 40-hour workweek. The women’s movement led to the legalization of abortion and the rewriting of divorce laws. Amidst these seismic societal transformations, Italian art, architecture and design were undergoing their own revolution. These cultural pursuits played an important role in politicizing a new generation of Italians - the instigators of this widespread social and economic change. However, the role of one particular movement is often overlooked: the Radical Design Movement. Through the design of forwardthinking discotheques, the Radical Design Movement played a pivotal role in Italy’s societal changes in the 1960s and 70s.

In the late 50s, Italy experienced an industrial revolution that saw the mass production of motor cars and refrigerators along with the development of new financial markets. The public, including artists, saw the rapid industrialization

4. Luca Massimo Barbe ro, curator of Dawn of a Nation, interview by Harry Seymour. (2018). “Dawn of a Nation: Artistic rebellion in post-war Italy". Christie’s. https:// www.christies.com/ features/Dawn-of-a-Na tion-The-emergence-ofItalian-modern-art-be tween-1958-68-8970-1. aspx. (Accessed Decem ber 17, 2020).

5. Pignatti, Loren zo. “Modern Italian Architecture: Lec ture 10." (December 4, 2020). Microsoft Teams. (Accessed December 4, 2020).

as a cause for celebration. Luca Massimo Barbero, the curator of an exhibition focusing on politicized Italian art in the late 50s and 60s, stated, “in a country which has been culturally destroyed, these technologies were reason [for the artists] to be happy” (Barbero, 2018). Reflecting their willingness to embrace the new, artists began experimenting with bold colours, abstract forms and new mediums. Artists such as Alberto Burri, Piero Manzoni and Christo became more interested in imagination, happenings and the ephemeral than in traditional paint and canvas. By the early 60s, Italy was “a battlefield of the avant-garde” (Barbero, 2018).

However, unlike the avant-garde art movement, Italian architecture in the late 50s and early 60s was simple, honest and almost banal; it opposed the country’s fascist history by rejecting monumentality, focusing instead on the human scale and design that encouraged social interactions.

6. Pignatti. “Modern Italian Architecture: Lecture 10."

7. Rossi, Catharine. “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s." In: Kries, Mateo , Eisen brand, Jochen and Ros si, Catharine, (eds.)

“Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, 1960-To day." (2018). Weil am Rhein, Germany : Vitra Design Museum. pp. 2439. ISBN 9783945852248

On the international stage, groups such as Team 10, which included Italian architect Giancarlo di Carlo, disapproved of modernism – the era’s prevailing design philosophy – and its placeless, dogmatic approach and disregard for the individual. Team 10 advocated for a critical and intense focus on regionalism and context, both immediate and territorial.

Simultaneously, a much more radical response to modernist architecture was taking hold. In the early to mid-60s, Italian architects and students across the country, inspired by the aforementioned artists, became interested in connecting the avant-garde art movement to architecture. This young generation was more interested in using their profession as a tool for social change and challenging the societal role of the architect than they were in designing for a consumerist society.

The First Piper

8. Francesco Capolei, architect, interview by Catharine Rossi (2017). “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s". In: Kries, Mateo , Eisen brand, Jochen and Ros si, Catharine, (eds.)

“Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, 1960-To day". (2018). Weil am Rhein, Germany : Vitra Design Museum. pp. 2439. ISBN 9783945852248

In 1964, Francesco Capolei and his brother - a pair of young architects educated in Rome in the late 1950s - were at a jazz jam session in a square near Corso Trieste. Events such as this were common in Italy at the time due to a lack of venues outside of the traditional dinner club circuit. Also in attendance was a young, well-travelled idealist and lawyer named Alberigo Crocetta, who believed that America and Britain were more socially progressive than Italy. After getting turned away by older, more experienced architects due to his extremely tight budget, he approached the Capolei brothers with a proposal: “a giant pinball machine [nightclub] for youngsters. I want young people to be able to gather, with no divisions of class, education or beauty. Everybody should be able to meet and converse” (Crocetta, 1965). The Capolei brothers enlisted the help of their former classmate Manlio Cavalli and immediately accepted. Named the Piper Club, it was to be Italy’s first discotheque.

To realize Crocetta’s vision, the trio knew that they had to depart from the typical static stage on one side, dancefloor on the other nightclub typology. Instead, to facilitate and enable social participation, they envisioned a dynamic space where people could be both actors and spectators at the same time. To

Image 2 (left): Interior of The Piper Club Rome, 1966

achieve this goal, a new type of architecture that provided more flexibility had to be created.

9. Capolei. “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s".

Crocetta acquired an old purpose-built basement cinema that had never opened. The cavernous space was almost square, measuring 35x40m and had soaring ceilings nearly 15m tall. Massive columns and balconies flanked a stage meant for the cinema screen. Due to the project’s minimal budget, the scope of the architect’s work was limited to a series of small interventions to break the uniformity of the space. The dancefloor was punctuated by movable rectangular platforms at different heights, some of which were illuminated, some not. The architects used the cheapest materials available at the time: wood, recycled brick and rubber cladding, all painted white to unify the improvised material palette. Eraclit - a material made of compressed sawdust - and egg cartons - to dampen the sound - were used to create a false ceiling. Lighting and projector rigs made out of scaffolding with cables left exposed were hung from the existing ceiling beams. Initially, there was no furniture in the club; the entire space was dedicated to dancing and dancing alone. Eventually, however, residents of the Trieste and Parioli neighbourhoods – where the Piper was located - complained about the noise, and the club lost its license. City officials decided that a club couldn’t be purely for dancing; to reopen, the club also had to offer food. To remedy the issue, the architects replaced some platforms with traditional inn tables and added a few self-service vending machines.

10. Capolei. “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s".

11. Rossi. “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s".

The Piper opened in February 1965 and was immediately a roaring success. By mid-1965, mere months after opening, young people from all over Italy were travelling to Rome to experience a night at the Piper; on an almost nightly basis, the club doubled, tripled or even quadrupled its 500-person capacity. Acts ranging from Pink Floyd to Patty Pravo performed before a backdrop of original pop-art murals by artists such as Andy Warhol and Piero Manzoni. Frequented by celebrities, students, artists, workers, socialites and everyone in between, the Piper achieved its goal of being a space devoid of hierarchy. The Piper was so popular and its atmosphere – characterized by immersive audiovisuals, flexible furnishings, non-hierarchical arrangement and diverse music programme – so unique, that its name became shorthand to describe this new type of space. The Piper ushered in a new era of Italian club culture that lasted until the mid-70s, and, though the trio of architects didn’t know it at the time, their discotheque was also the indirect birth of Radical Design.

Florence, the Radical Epicentre

The direct correlation between the Piper’s atypical and unique design and its popularity was, in the eyes of a young generation of Italian architects, a testament to the social power of architecture. Designing discos offered architects unprecedented opportunities for innovation, experimentation and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to instigate social change. Through the design of Pipers, architects were able to communicate more directly with the young generation, finally giving them agency to affect social change.

This topic of the Piper and the shifting role of the architect in society was

Image 3 (right): Superarchitettura at Jolly2 Gallery, 1966

12. De Falco, Caroli na. “Leonardo Savi oli: Didactics and Projects for “Space Involvement." (2018). Histories of Postwar Architecture. https:// hpa.unibo.it/article/ view/7805. ISSN 26110075 (Accessed December 21, 2020).

explored in a course taught by professor Leonardo Savioli at the University of Florence in 1966. By approaching architecture through the lens of social interactions, the course positioned discos as “spazio per coinvolgimento,” or “spaces of involvement,” and examined the relationship of the space and its inhabitants. In a retrospective, Savioli writes, “the Piper is the modern piazza, on every occasion, it’s a pretext for stimulation, for communication.” Many of the most eminent Radical Architects were his students, teaching assistants or adjunct professors, including Adolfo Natalini, one of the founders of Superstudio.

Natalini was previously a painter, however, he decided his profession “wasn’t socially relevant,” so he enrolled at the University of Florence to study architecture. A subversive and politically minded individual, Natalini was not interested in architecture in the traditional sense – that is building buildings; he was more so interested in the social implications of architecture.

13. Poltronova. “Su perarchitettura". (2018). Poltronova. https://www.poltronova. it/1966/12/04/super architettura-1966-3/ (Accessed December 23, 2020).

14. Hucal, Sarah. “The Radical Renais sance". (2016). Curbed. https://archive.curbed. com/2016/12/21/14009200/ florence-italy-radicaldesign-history. (Ac cessed December 28, 2020).

Natalini and his classmates - with whom he bonded over their shared interest in Savioli’s course and mutual distaste for modernism - formed two groups: Superstudio and Archizoom. Superstudio was founded by Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, while Archizoom was founded by Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello and Massimo Morozzi. In December 1966, at the Jolly2 gallery in Pistoia, the two groups jointly exhibited an installation manifesto called, “Superarchitettura.” The physical installation was simple: curved, blobular polyethylene forms were interspersed and arranged with found objects in a narrow rectangular room, and everything was painted in bold colours, reminiscent of Pop-art. A short text accompanied the exhibit: “Superarchitecture is the architecture of superproduction, superconsumption, of the superinduction for consumption, the supermarket, the superman and the superpetrol.” The exhibition was a critique of rationalist modernism and the culture of consumption and waste that it promoted. Magazines such as Domus and Casabella published the exhibition and featured writings from Andrea Branzi. Despite stemming from the design of the Piper in Rome, the publications credited Superarchitettura as being the official birth of Radical Design.

The Radical Design Movement

15. Sritharan, Bren navan. “The radical architects who designed the discos of postwar Italy." (January 6, 2016. The British Journal of Photogra phy. https://www.1854. photography/2016/01/ the-radical-architectswho-designed-the-dis cos-of-post-war-italy/. (Accessed December 15, 2020).

Radical Design encompasses an eclectic range of work unified by its desire to subvert the role of architecture as a modernist pursuit. Radical Designers disapproved of the consumer-driven design industry and the capitalist society it serviced; they were interested in using architecture to address social issues. As such, many took up positions of disavowal, refusing to design anything that could become manufactured, mercantile commodities. However, despite the common theme, there was no singular Radical manifesto, so the medium, scale and focus of work belonging to the Radical movement varied dramatically.

Superstudio postulated that architecture did not need to lead to physical buildings, but could instead be used as a societal critique. Through visionary projects such as The Continuous Monument, they explored the ideas of “antidesign” and “negative-utopia.” The Continuous Monument was a series of

16.Poyau, Morgan.

“Original Creators: Superstudio." (May 12, 2011). VICE. https:// www.vice.com/en/ar ticle/78wgpz/origi nal-creators-superstu dio. (Accessed December 19, 2020).

collages and drawings that depicted a single façade-less structure, arbitrarily represented as an endless monochromatic grid, that connected and covered the entire world. Intended as a refuge and container for humanity, its interior – while never explicitly shown - was envisaged as the optimal living space for every human, allowing nature to reclaim the earth without human interference. Simultaneously a critique of globalization, modernist architectural utopias and the destruction of local culture at the hands of new technologies, the blend of social critique and irony was typical of Superstudio’s work.

17. Smyth, Michael.

“The Radical Design Movement". (July 30, 2019). Speculative EDU. https://specula tiveedu.eu/the-radi cal-design-movement/. (Accessed December 28, 2020).

18.Dama, Francesco.

“The Radical Discos of 1960s Italy and Archi tectural Innovation." (January 7, 2016). https://hyperallergic. com/260282/the-radi cal-discos-of-1960s-it aly-and-architec tural-innovation/ (Accessed December 24, 2020).

Archizoom, like Superstudio but with less irony, used anti-design as a tool to question the role of architecture and design in society. An early manifestation of this philosophy is Superonda, a frameless sofa made of 2 movable pieces of polyethylene. The undulating form and reconfigurable components challenge convention and promote a more flexible approach to living; they could be used as a chaise longue, a bed or a sofa. In 1969, Archizoom revealed the most refined example of their anti-design approach: No-Stop City. Contemporaneous with The Continuous Monument, No-Stop City was Archizoom’s vision of a fully flexible city of the future: the idea of the project was a city that has the ability to grow, shrink, construct and reconstruct itself based on the needs of its inhabitants. Archizoom quantified the City as a series of overlapping grids: a bath every 40m, a computer every 100m, a bed every 20m, etc. Rather than propose any tangible structure, No-Stop City was more a method to understand the structure of a city and society. This project, along with The Continuous Monument, belonged to a new typology of socially and politically driven architectural work that was never intended to be built. Over the decades, these types of projects have become massively popular, with students and architects ranging Rem Koolhaas to Zaha Hadid citing them as direct influence.

Image 4 (above): The Continuous Monument by Superstudio, 1969

19.Ornella, Marco. “Florence. The Radi cal Revolution of the 9999 Group". (Decem ber 20, 2017). DOMUS. https://www.domusweb. it/en/architec ture/2017/12/20/rivolu zione-9999-la-mos tra-che-cele bra-la-pratica-manuale. html. (Accessed Decem ber 31, 2020).

Superstudio and Archizoom were not the only practitioners of this new type of conceptual architecture: other Radical Design collectives quickly made their own contributions to the movement.

After spending time in the United States, Gruppo 9999, a collective from Turin, projected discontinuous video “happenings” – an astronaut floating in space, a Los Angeles freeway, geometric patterns - onto the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Inspired by the experimental visual projections of New York’s Electric Circus, the videos were intended as a way for the public to re-contextualize the monument without physically disturbing it. Gruppo 9999 was also inspired by the selfsufficiency of US Hippy clans. The collective proposed Vegetable Garden House, a mass-produced piece of furniture that integrated all the necessities of life: a garden, water and an oversized multipurpose air mattress.

20.Petridis, Alexis. “Build, baby, build: when radical architects did disco." (Novem ber 22, 2015). The Guardian. https://www. theguardian.com/artand design/2015/nov/22/ radical-disco-archi tects-italy-night club-design-60s-70s-ica (Accessed December 20, 2020).

Meanwhile, Gruppo UFO, a Radical Design Collective from Florence founded by Lapo Binazzi, created “urban ephemera,” made up of inflatables and cheap materials such as polyurethane pipes. They paraded their objects around the city, creating a sharp and ironic contrast between the richly detailed, opulent baroque buildings and the cheap, impermanent materials of the new generation. These conceptual and polemical projects fit the ethos of the radical designers: designing a project for a private client or a public building for the government would be antithetical to the basis of the movement. However, there was one space the Radicals were willing and eager to design: the disco.

Image 5 (above): No-Stop City Internal Landscapes by Archizo om, 1970

Image 6 + 7 (left):

Interior of Mach2 by Superstudio, 1967

The Radical Pipers

Inspired by the success and social impact of the Piper in Rome, Radical Designers saw discos as much more than simple nightclubs; they envisioned discos as transformative social spaces that could be drivers of societal change. Pipers broke down the disciplinary boundaries between art, music, architecture and technology and were perfect opportunities for Radical Designers to experiment and put their ideas into practice. Spurred on by the anythinggoes zeitgeist of the time, the Pipers of 1967 and onwards were even more experimental and deviated even further from the traditional nightclub typology than the original Piper in Rome.

21.Rossi. “In the Me dia: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s."

Image 8 (left):

Living Theatre Group Performing Paradise Lost at Space Electron ic, 1970

Image 9 (left center): Interior of Space Elec tronic by Gruppo 9999, 1969

Mach 2, designed by Superstudio in early 1967, was the first Radicallydesigned space to open in Florence, and was an immediate hit with politicized, countercultural youths. Envisioned as a futuristic superspace and theatre for democracy, the subterranean disco was characterized by reflective and transparent materials, bright yellow handrails and pink strip lighting to guide people through the pitch-black space. The idea was that the darkness would strip people of their identity, creating an anonymous space where people could freely and fully express themselves.

22.Ornella. “Florence. The Radical Revolution of the 9999 Group."

23.Rossi. “In the Me dia: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s."

24. Fiumi, Elettra. “Orgies on a dance floor: Space Elec tronic." (January 18, 2018). The Florentine. https://www.thefloren tine.net/2018/01/18/ space-electronic-flash back/. (Accessed Decem ber 31, 2020).

Two years later, in Florence, Gruppo 9999 designed and opened Space Electronic. Occupying an old engine repair shop that was damaged in the great 1966 flood of the Arno, the disco’s furnishings featured salvaged equipment such as washing machine drums, dishwasher casings and a parachute suspended from the ceiling. Space Electronic was managed and owned by Gruppo 9999, which gave them unlimited creative freedom. By day, Studio Electronic was an experimental architectural school: a space for students to test their ideas and collaborate with practicing Radical Design collectives such as UFO, Superstudio, and of course, Gruppo 9999. At night, the disco transformed into a feverish, near-narcotic experience more defined by its audiovisual technologies than its architecture. Gruppo 9999 prototyped their Vegetable Garden House proposal in Space Electronic, which saw a fully functional vegetable garden complete with an air mattress installed in the middle of the dancefloor. The disco also hosted events ranging from performances by Living Theatre, an avant-garde New York-based theatre group known for their sexually explicit performances, to festivals such as Festival Mondial, which saw the ground floor of the club flooded and turned into a “lake.”

25.Petridis. “Build, baby, build: when radical architects did disco."

The experiments in radical disco architecture weren’t confined to Florence; in Turin, La Fine Del Mondo by Gruppo Strum was an industrial container that featured movable bars, towers, partitions, tables and chairs, all made out of plastic - a relatively new building material at the time. The space, coined pluridisco-teca by its designers, was configured differently for different events, which ranged from fashion shows to concerts to music nights for Turin’s factory workers.

Meanwhile, UFO opened Bamba Issa in the Tuscan seaside town of Forte dei Marmi. The summer-only discotheque was inspired by a 1950 comic book, Donald Duck and the Magic Hourglass, which UFO saw as “an allegory for

Image 10 (right): Lovers on a swing chair at Bamba Issa by UFO, 1970

26.Petridis. “Build, baby, build: when radical architects did disco."

27.Rossi. “In the Me dia: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s."

capitalism, its arrogance and shortcomings” (Binazzi, 2015). In an effort to weave a continuous, evolving story, the collective redesigned Bamba Issa each year of its short 3-year lifespan. “In the first year, we painted a picture of an oasis in a barren desert: Scrooge McDuck’s egg timer isn’t working, no one can find the red sand – oil – and the camels have long since left,” explains Binazzi. “In the second year, the oasis is colonized. And in the third and final year, inevitable systematic exploitation is addressed. Africa is rich in treasures, but now also filled with the colonizer’s waste and the only way the natives can earn a living is by selling us unnecessary trinkets and exporting them back to our shores” (Binazzi, 2015). It might seem strange that vacationing patrons would want to drink and dance in a space that addressed systemic exploitation, however, the radical Pipers were immensely popular.

28.Smyth. “The Radical Design Movement."

29.Hucal. “The Radical Renaissance."

30. Capolei. “In the Media: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s".

31.Rossi. “In the Me dia: Italy’s Radical Pipers in the 1960s and 1970s."

32. Sumitra Upham, interview by Alex is Petridis. “Build, baby, build: when radical architects did disco." (2015). The Guardian. https://www. theguardian.com/artand design/2015/nov/22/ radical-disco-archi tects-italy-night club-design-60s-70s-ica (Accessed December 20, 2020).

While other nightclubs featured singers and orchestras, the Pipers played records, and hosted everything from rock bands to poetry workshops to political rallies. For politicized, countercultural Italian youth, the Pipers finally felt like spaces that belonged to them. By providing physical spaces for those who supported social and political movements, the Pipers spearheaded social change. In a recent interview, Francesco Capolei, the eldest of the brothers, elaborates on this point: “… the Piper was the beginning of an economic boom, a crazy sociological event. The Piper was a psychosocial affair that changed the Italian way of life. Before then Italy was backwards compared to the UK and other parts of Europe; there was only a close-minded political class” (Capolei, 2017). The discotheques gave people the freedom to interact with each other without the influence of tradition and social norms. They also gave architects a direct voice, and revealed the role of the radical architect in society: the enablers of social change. Pipers were a catalyst that helped actualize the countercultural movement, which eventually led to the political protests of the late 60s.

Unfortunately, as the dust settled from the tumultuous protests in the mid-70s, the radical Pipers were closed, replaced, ironically, by more commerciallyminded nightclub ventures. The only surviving example of the radical discotheques is the original Piper Club in Rome, which is now known for its conservative, mature crowd and over-priced drinks. As Sumitra Upham, the curator of a retrospective exhibition on Radical Disco at London’s ICA, writes, “The way people consume nightlife is ever-evolving and in a way, I think it was a natural ending for them to close in the mid-70s.” Perhaps this is why these exciting designs – the only built work realized by the Radical Design Movement – remain a foggy memory, similar to that of the youth after a night at the Piper.