On Bramante is made of two parts. The first part of the book investigates the work of Donato Bramante (1444–1514) as logical work. Starting from a discussion of the difference in the architecture of Bramante in Milan (1481–1499) and Rome (1499–1514), the text discusses the particular, non-nostalgic character of Bramante’s classicism—particularly in comparison to the work of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), Giuliano da Sangallo (1443–1516), and Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). Then, after a critique of the notion of a “classical language,” the notions of distance and abstraction are introduced, exposing a possible relation among abstract and public architecture. The second part of the book interprets the work of Bramante as political work. An analysis of Bramante’s collaborations with contemporary artists and craftsmen highlights similar possibilities in contemporary practice, and suggests understanding architecture as indirect political work.

Pier Paolo Tamburelli studied at the University of Genoa and at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. In 2004 Tamburelli founded baukuh together with Paolo Carpi, Silvia Lupi, Vittorio Pizzigoni, Giacomo Summa, and Andrea Zanderigo. Among other projects, baukuh completed the House of Memory in Milan (2015) and the entrance pavilion of the Poretti Brewery in Induno Olona (2018), and is currently developing the restoration of the Seminar School in Hoogstraten, the masterplan of the Pupillen site in Aalst, the strategic plan for the Student City of Tirana, and the new headquarters of the Albanian Police in Tirana. baukuh took part in the Rotterdam Biennale (2007 and 2011), in the Istanbul Biennial (2012), in the Venice Biennale (2008 and 2012), in the Lisbon Triennale (2016 and 2019), and in the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015 and 2017). Tamburelli has taught at the Berlage Institute, at TUM Munich, at FAUP Porto, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, at TU Vienna, and he is currently a professor at the Milan Politecnico and a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). In 2018, he has been a member of the jury of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Tamburelli received the Icon Awards 2012 and was nominated for the Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize 2016. He is one of the founders and editors of the architectural magazine San Rocco.