Authorship as a Differentiated Practice Rethinking Carlo Mollino

Abstract

The contribution explores authorship as a processual and relational practice through the work of Carlo Mollino. Rather than being defined by formal consistency, authorship in this context is constructed through the design process itself. The case of Casa Miller is particularly revealing: here, architect and client are one and the same. Yet this overlap does not erase the relational dimension of the project –instead, it reframes it. Mollino constructs a fictional counterpart, a symbolic client who becomes a narrative agent within the space. As Carlo Levi (Levi 1938) observed, the inhabitant of Casa Miller acts like a character, inhabiting and enacting a story through architecture. The authorial presence is not imposed but negotiated, emerging through internal dialogue and imaginative projection. Adopting a design-driven research approach based on spatial reconstruction and interpretative analysis of drawings and photographs, this study reveals how the project becomes a site for symbolic authorship, culminating in the creation of an intentional atmosphere.

Keywords: Carlo Mollino, atmosphere, authorship