The exhibition takes its cue from a phrase that PAM (the acronym for Paolo Antonio Martini) loved to repeat and which perfectly summarised his approach to both design and life: “I draw, therefore I dream.”
The exhibition itinerary presents a selection from the vast collection of drawings gathered in more than one hundred notebooks created between 1972 and 2022, the true starting point of all his work. Through sketches, notes, studies, watercolours and illustrations, visitors are guided through PAM’s creative process, where drawing is never merely a preparatory tool, but rather a means of knowledge, reflection and invention.
An architect by training, graduating in Florence in 1969 and winner of the Grand Prix d’Urbanisme et d’Architecture in 1971, PAM designed housing developments, school buildings, multifunctional complexes, tourist facilities and public-space interventions throughout his career, showing an early interest in bioclimatic architecture and the enhancement of green areas. After his first experiences with housing cooperatives, in 1983 he founded his professional practice, “Martini Studio”. His work was mainly based in Florence and Tuscany, but also extended abroad, with experiences in Prague and projects for Saint Petersburg. In 1985, together with Gilberto Corretti, he founded Professione Architetto, the journal of the Tuscan Order of Architects. He later designed the underground parking-square system of the Parterre in Piazza Libertà. A significant part of his work was also devoted to “building within the built”, through the restoration of former manufactories and industrial complexes, as well as historic buildings, including the 15th-century former convent of Paradiso degli Alberti in Florence. Alongside his architectural projects, PAM also designed public spaces and urban furnishings intended for serial production, while working in design, interior architecture and exhibition design.
Alongside his professional activity, he cultivated throughout his life a profound passion for freehand drawing, which he considered indispensable to the act of designing itself, defining it as an exercise “with a free mind”. In the 2000s he published illustrated stories in the magazine Cultura Commestibile, such as Lectura Dantis and the comic strip Pamela, whose title derives from his acronym PAM. Accordingly, alongside projects and major works, the exhibition also features figures, real and imaginary characters, theoretical reflections, notes for lectures and conferences, and incursions into illustration and comics.
A rich and previously unseen selection of drawings is presented both in original form and in reproduction, accompanied by enlargements highlighting the most emblematic details of his graphic style. Each section is further enriched by display cases containing personal notebooks, opened at particularly representative pages, offering visitors the possibility of entering directly into the artist’s mental and graphic workshop.
The exhibition is held under the patronage of the Tuscany Region and the Order of Architects of Florence, and is supported by Unicoop Firenze and the Municipality of Massa.
