by Patrick Sisson

In their earliest incarnations, discos and clubs such as The Loft and Paradise Garage in New York and elsewhere were about musical and societal liberation. A new exhibit at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, Radical Disco: Architecture and Nightlife in Italy, 1965-1975, looks at how an earlier generation of nightlife venues in Italy fused progressive music with the experimental architecture of groups such as Gruppo 9999, Superstudio and UFO.

With designs that challenged prevailing ideas of modernism, these dance clubs were created with the liberating potential of music and technology in mind, becoming "hotbeds of experimentation in music and theater," according to co-curator Sumitra Upham.

Read more

Source: http://curbed.com/