From fascism to the postwar era. The “two lives” of Cesare Valle, architect and urbanist (original) (raw)
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2023
The “Renaissance” gardens of Villa Madama, Raphael’s late masterwork for the Medici popes, were actually completely recreated in the twentieth century, although little information about them has previously emerged. Based on abundant material from private archives, this book reveals an unknown story of the gardens’ creation by an international cohort of designers and patrons. It further details how the restored villa came to be integrated into one of the most significant urban initiatives of the Fascist ventennio—the neighboring Foro Mussolini (current Foro Italico)—and linked with the seat of the Foreign Ministry in a verdant garden park. This novel account of the synergy among these coeval projects traces the interwar development of this symbolic entry zone to Rome, demonstrating the power of urban landscape for constructing political and cultural identity. This narrative integrates the histories of architecture, of gardens and landscape, of urban form, and of restoration with the storia del gusto and political history. It also introduces the villa’s owners—a French engineer, then an Italian count and a flamboyant American heiress—interweaving stories of their lives with their restoration of this significant heritage site, set against the political backdrop of the Fascist ascendency. The richly textured narrative yields a new portrait of the villa as an international salon for soft diplomacy, and examines the mythologizing of Renaissance heritage by ideologues and propagandists establishing the Third Rome. Ultimately it is a tale of diachronic political theater in the palimpsestic gateway to Rome, at a crucial moment for the formation of Italian cultural identity and Roman urban form. ==== I giardini “rinascimentali” di Villa Madama, ultimo capolavoro di Raffaello per i papi Medici, furono in realtà completamente ricreati nel XX secolo, anche se finora sono emerse poche informazioni su di essi. Basato su un abbondante materiale proveniente da archivi privati, questo libro rivela la storia sconosciuta della creazione dei giardini da parte di un gruppo internazionale di designer e mecenati. Viene spiegato in modo dettagliato come la villa restaurata fu integrata in una delle iniziative urbane più significative del ventennio fascista – il vicino Foro Mussolini (attuale Foro Italico) – e collegata con la sede del Ministero degli Esteri all’interno di un verdeggiante parco. Questo nuovo resoconto della sinergia tra questi progetti coevi ripercorre lo sviluppo tra le due guerre di questa simbolica zona di ingresso a Roma, dimostrando il potere del paesaggio urbano per la costruzione di un’identità politica e culturale. Questa narrazione integra la storia dell’architettura, dei giardini e del paesaggio, della forma urbana e del restauro con la storia del gusto e la storia politica. Presenta inoltre i proprietari della villa – un ingegnere francese, poi un conte italiano e una fiammeggiante ereditiera americana – che intrecciarono le loro vite con il restauro di questo importante sito storico, avvenuto all’interno del contesto politico dell’ascesa fascista. La narrazione riccamente strutturata fornisce un nuovo ritratto della villa come salone internazionale di diplomazia mondana ed esamina la mitizzazione dell’eredità rinascimentale da parte di ideologi e propagandisti che fondarono la Terza Roma. Infine, è un racconto storico del teatro politico di Roma, in un momento cruciale per la formazione dell’identità culturale italiana e della forma urbana romana.
A Fascist architecture case study from Como, Italy: Sede dell'Unione Fascista Lavoratori dell'Industria - ULI, 2022
On the Sede dell'Unione Fascista Lavoratori dell'Industria - ULI, an example of Modern architecture, the construction of which was completed in 1943 and designed by the Italian architect Cesare Cattaneo (P. Lingeri, L. Origoni, A. Magnaghi, M. Terzaghi, 1st prize) research work. It consists of two parts on historical research and design analysis of the building. The example of Fascist architecture in Como region of Italy was analyzed by group work and the work was completed in 2022. Working members: Ma Yimeng, Salman Berkay, Sanguanini Minerva, Seto Aoi, Tomczak Zuzanna Consulting Professors: Chiara Baglione, Matteo Moscatelli Collaborators: Alessandra Ferrari, Fabio Marino, Simone Milani
2018
During the 30’s, the Fascist Party achieves its most significant territorial project: the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and the construction of New Towns. In the same years starts the debate between modernity and tradition, that will characterize the whole history of modern Italian architecture, and the Fascist party obtains its highest approval trying to breathe life into a new Italian society full of new behaviours. This opens a new parenthesis within the debate of modern Italian architecture that not only has to find its own definition but must also be translated as State’s art. In this scenario, the founding cities of the Agro Pontino became the experimental territory for the Italian architects of the Modern era. The pivotal architect of the New Towns was Oriolo Frezzotti, chosen directly by Mussolini to build in 1932 the first new town, Latina, with a rural character and then in 1935, Pontinia where the architect abandoned the vernacular style to leave space to pure geomet...
A Fascist architecture case study from Como, Italy: Casa Giuliani Frigerio
A Fascist architecture case study from Como, Italy: Casa Giuliani Frigerio, 2022
Research study on Casa Giuliani Frigerio, an example of Modern architecture, whose construction was completed in 1940 and designed by the Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni. It consists of two parts on historical research and design analysis of the building. The example of Fascist architecture in Como region of Italy was analyzed by group work and the work was completed in 2022. Working members: Ma Yimeng, Salman Berkay, Sanguanini Minerva, Seto Aoi, Tomczak Zuzanna Consulting Professors: Chiara Baglione, Matteo Moscatelli Collaborators: Alessandra Ferrari, Fabio Marino, Simone Milani
A Fascist architecture case study from Como, Italy: Asilo Sant'Elia
A Fascist architecture case study from Como, Italy: Asilo Sant'Elia, 2022
Research study on Asilo Sant Elia, an example of Modern architecture designed by Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni in 1935. It consists of two parts on historical research and design analysis of the building. The example of Fascist architecture in Como region of Italy was analyzed by group work and the work was completed in 2022. Working members: Ma Yimeng, Salman Berkay, Sanguanini Minerva, Seto Aoi, Tomczak Zuzanna Consulting Professors: Chiara Baglione, Matteo Moscatelli Collaborators: Alessandra Ferrari, Fabio Marino, Simone Milani
The Bureaucratisation of Architecture in Post-War Italy (Architectural History 65; 2022)
2022
In Italy following the second world war, the Vatican-controlled real-estate developer and contractor Società Generale Immobiliare (SGI) emerged as a major force in the country's reconstruction process. From its Rome headquarters, the 'Leviathan' (as the journalist Antonio Cederna called it) devised, delivered and managed dozens of schemes across the peninsula-from residential and commercial developments to industrial, road transport and water infrastructure. None of this would have been possible without the establishment, immediately after the end of the war, of a centralised administrative system coordinating the work of the company's 10,000 employees. Making use of the company's unpublished documents, this article examines the bureaucratisation of SGI's design and construction processes in the period 1945-73. It looks at the development of the company's in-house information management system; the criteria it adopted in appointing its architectural staff; the modernisation of the company's office space in Rome; the predicament of the architects on its payroll; its use of high-profile 'signature' architects for prestige projects; and the firm's later adoption of project management techniques developed in the United States. It also looks at the way that the company exploited national and municipal planning regulations (and the gaps within them) to produce building types and urban configurations not previously seen in Italy. Overall, the article situates SGI's 'bureaucratic drift' in the context of the increasingly corporate and specialised professional world of postwar western architecture. To many, the words 'post-war Italian architecture' conjure up images of progressiveminded architects working in cosy studio spaces and concocting designs down to the tiniest detail for the state or independent clients. Gio Ponti, Franco Albini or Mario Ridolfi, for example, all worked in a craftsman-like fashion and pursued more than mere profit, be it some form of public good (the INA-Casa housing programme) or private distinction (the Pirelli building in Milan). Architectural historians have examined these figures and their production from many different angles, but so far have paid little attention to the opposite side of the coin: the conditions of work and production in larger, profit-driven outfits and, beyond this, speculative building in general, which accounts for the majority of the housing stock constructed in Italy from 1945 onwards. There is something of a bias in this area of the discipline, which has edited out of the