LIGHTING THE LAST SUPPER

摘要

Looking back across the span of the 20th century, Italy stands without rival for its capacity to blend the universal principles of good design with a hunger for technological innovation. Other countries made their contributions at various points, of course, but no other nation can match this consistent ability to set the old and the new in so rich a dialogue. It's impossible to imagine that this enduring skill was not a factor in the decision to award Milan the prize of hosting Expo 2015. It is worth noting, however, that this is not the first time the city has been responsible for delivering an event of this kind. The World Expo of 1906 established Italy's credentials early on as the locus of a technical revolution. But while the nation was at that time celebrating triumphs in the area of railway engineering - the recently completed 18km Alpine tunnel, the Simplon Pass, and the Paris to Milan line - it clearly finds itself in a different world today. An intervening century of progress in material science and heavy engineering allows us to create structures once unimaginable, as even a short walk along the Expo's main strip will attest, but the truth is that the finest spatial experiences rely on crafting a far more ethereal material - light.