Unprecedented Realism: Selections from the Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti Collection

October, 2022

A Theory of the Production of Meaning in Architecture, [1980]

In early fall 2023, Harvard University Graduate School of Design hosted the exhibition, “Unprecedented Realism: Selections from the Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti Collection.” The exhibition, marking both the Frances Loeb Library’s acquisition of the Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti Collection and Jorge’s retirement from the GSD, presents a series of narratives that reflect the evolution of the Machado Silvetti architectural practice over the last five decades.

Curated by Mark Lee, department chair of architecture at the GSD, and graduate student Remi McClain, the exhibition includes over 120 pieces of two-dimensional work, 30 models, and 250 pieces of discursive material from the Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti Collection.

Exhibition photos, credit Justin Knight

In his review of the exhibition, critic Joseph P. Sgambati III shares his impressions in an article for METROPOLIS:

“Overall, the show is a testament to MACHADO SILVETTI’s life-long accumulation of production. What emerges is a rigorous practice of preserving and documenting the thought process that drives the discipline, tests theory, and allows the field to evolve while honoring lessons from the past.”

“Machado and Silvetti seek to be unbound by convention in their work while still grounded in a reality that allows for design’s utilitarian function, an architecture whose theory is tethered to the successful performance of its final structure.”

- Joseph P. Sgambati III, "Harvard GSD Exhibition Explores the “Unprecedented Realism” of Machado Silvetti," METROPOLIS: www.metropolismag.com/viewpoints/machado-silvetti-unprecedented-realism/.

Read more about the exhibition here: www.gsd.harvard.edu/exhibition/machado-silvetti/