ABSTRACT
Theorists of architecture have always tended to focus on the social and political impact of constructed buildings, successful projects, master plans and urban initiatives. Commonly, declined projects disappear quickly and are soon completely forgotten, since viewers are used to consuming images of existing iconic buildings or representations of the-project-to-be-built. Only a few of them live a "social life" of their own and are displayed in exhibits or published in books as witnesses to architectural creativity, thus entering the salient archives of the history of architecture. I refer here to the term "social life of objects" of Appadurai who argues that objects and things, like human beings, have a "social life" and change their identity according to complex processes of cultural and political construction. 1 Architectural controversies, that often accompany unrealized projects, have rarely been studied, 2 and little has been done to account for the role played by the numerous dismissed projects, unsuccessful architectural proposals and urbanistic initiatives, or their impact at the time when they were publicly discussed. When it comes to failure, the Modern movement in summum is evaluated and the malfunctions of Modern architecture are judged. 3
