italian architect, adolfo natalini, passed away yesterday on january 23rd, 2020. born near florence in 1941, natalini was best known for co-founding superstudio with his university classmate cristiano toraldo di francia. gaining prominence during the 1960s and 70s, the architecture collective became famous for its avant-garde style and fantastical visualizations, which birthed the italian radical design movement after the defining ?superarchitettura? exhibition of 1966.

image courtesy of natalini architetti
 
 
after growing up in the italian town of pistoia, natalini gained higher education at the university of florence, graduating in 1966. although he was more interested in painting at first, his friendship with toraldo di francia led to the birth of superstudio in the same year. gian piero frassinelli, alessandro magris, roberto magris and alessandro poli would later join the collective, and together, with their shared disillusionment of the status quo, the young creatives forged a new path in architecture that pushed the boundaries of the built environment.  

video via MAXXI
 
 
for the next 12 years, through research, drawings, photomontages and film, superstudio imagined subversive worlds that marked a definitive leave from modernity. one of the most notable projects was ?the continuous monument?, which imagined a ?negative utopia? that pushed the limits of the relationship between architecture and nature. providing inspiration to generations of architects and...