Representing contemporary architecture using hypermedia “Eight Italian architectures in the postwar period”

The Mac and Windows hybrid CD-ROM “Eight Italian architectures in the postwar periodℍ took its cue from a fortuitous event: in 1995, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum donated 8 scale models developed for the Architecture section of the exhibition «The Italian Metamorphosis 1943–1968», held in New York in 1993, to the MusArc - Museo Nazionale dell’architettura located in Ferrara’s ancient Rossetti Mansion. The donation of the models appeared the ideal subject matter to shape a virtual environment that, while supplying an appropriate framework for the donation, could fully partake in the overall cultural project around which MusArc is being structured. Prepared with the involvement of some 20 experts, the hypertext is the first large effort in Europe to represent and analyze contemporary architecture using digital methods and is intended to be more than a scientifically research document. It aims to be readily understood by the non-expert user, eliminating the difference between works for popular dissemination, historical reviews and critical analyses that are a constant feature of hardcopy publishing. It is mainly conceived with two aims: to be an accompaniment to material on display in the Museum and to be available to the public. That is why the technical solution adopted was a multiplatform CD-ROM.