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“Zodiac” (1957-1973). Art and technique to define architecture in front of the mass productionPatrizia BonifazioDepartment of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di MilanoIn 1957 the publication of the journal «Zodiac» started. The journal was headed in a first moment by Bruno Alfieri (from 1957 to 1963), then by Pier Carlo Santini, who will be the director up to 1967, and lastly by Maria Botero (who will edit the last issues from 1968 to 1973).The journal does not look like setting trends, nor is building an acknowledgeable intellectual group over time. It is open to a multi-level reading, proposing an interesting and original network of relationship and several scenario in the narration of contemporary architecture, alternating biographies, building analyses and a plot of columns personally directed by Alfieri, Santini and Giulia Veronesi on the coeval architectural production.Even if the journal had some crisis shaping in time its periodicity and was elitist, the proposed themes and languages underline its experimental features in the Italian cultural framework.This paper proposes the analysis of «Zodiac», with a particular attention for:(1) The role of Bruno Alfieri and Pier Carlo Santini in the direction of the journal. The first plays the role of the art connesseur and was an interesting vehicle of different cultural world (from the foundation of the Italian Association of the Industrial Design (1955) to the organization of magazines as «Lotus» and «Interni»). The second, pupil of the art historian Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, was the editor of «SeleArte» (1951-1957) an interesting popular art tabloid. Aware of the quantitative transition concerning the architectural production and of the beginning of the professional diversification of the second half of the 1960s, Santini organised the Bolaffi Catalogue (1963-1966), an impressive critical collection mapping architects and magazines and opening a new cultural field for a new generation of professionals no more limited by the academic and cultural borders of Milan and Rome.(2) The role of the art critics in the definition of the language and of the meaning given to the techniques (in building, composition, …) in writing articles.&#160;Patrizia Bonifazio teaches urban and planning history at Politecnico di Milano. Her area of expertise is the late 20th century architecture and urban history, with particular attention to the exchange between project cultures. She collaborated in important national research projects [“Middle class architecture in Italy between 1950s and 1970s: a comparative study about three Italian cities, Turin, Milan and Rome” (Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Università degli Studi Roma La Sapienza; 2011-2013) and “The structural conception. Engineering and architecture in Italy between1950s and 1960s” (Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Università degli Studi Roma La Sapienza, IUAV; 2011-2012)]. She was co-curator of international seminars promoted by Politecnico di Milano (among the latest, “Mapping the neighborhood. The multiple ways of an urban vision in the 20th century”, Politecnico di Milano, June 2015 and “European Design Culture Abroad. Exporting Architecture, Engineering and Planning after WWII”, Politecnico di Milano, January 2016). She was the scientific curator of the National Committee for the Centenary of the foundation of Olivetti (2007-2011) and the scientific director and editor of the nomination dossier of “Ivrea, industrial city of the XX century” to UNESCO site submitted in Paris (2012-2016). Actually, she is working on a manuscript concerning the exchange between the Italian industrial culture and the architectural culture in 1950s-1970s. The research about «Zodiac» is part of this work.