FRANCO RAGGI (http://www.futurarium.com/20012002/fr_i.htm)

Born in Milan in 1945, he graduated from the Politecnico in 1969. After a short period as a professional architect for the Nizzoli Associati partnership, he became a collaborator of Casabella, edited by Mendini from 1971 to 1975. In 1977 he became head of the editorial department at Modo magazine, of which he was the editor from 1981 to 1983. After the 1973 Venice Biennale, of which he was one of the co-ordinators, he got closer to the Radical movement and took part in the foundation of Global Tools, in which he operated on the ‘body’ issue. From 1975 to 1977 he was the secretary and the co-ordinator of the visual arts and architecture section at the Venice Biennale (“Europa - America”). Besides his activity as a critic - among his numerous writings are “Radical Story” (1973) and “Vienna Orchestra” (1974) -, in the course of the Seventies he investigated controdesign, design banale, and the relativity of the language. With A. Mendini, P. Navone e D. Puppa, he was the co-author of the exhibition “L’oggetto banale” (1980) for Alchimia, and the author of the exhibition “Architetture estive” (Summer Architecures), held in Rimini in 1981. In 1983, he created and curated the exhibition “Le case della Triennale” (The Houses of the Triennale), held simultaneously in Milan and Paris.