This review discussed the emergence of the Baroque in Italian visual arts as analysed in the book Baroquemania by Laura Moure Cecchini. In this book, the author shows how the baroque is a key element ...of the history of post-unification Italy which has been often neglected by the relevant scholarship on the matter. By reinscribing the Baroque within the Italian national paradigm, the book contributes to rewrite an important chapter of the history of Italian art in order to question its own foundational premises of an entirely rational strive to become a modern nation-state. In this way, Baroquemania represent an important addition to the existing scholarship on the relationship between the arts and the construction of national identity.
The article analyzes the Palace of Justice of Savona designed and built by Leonardo Ricci between 1972 and 1987, highlighting its aspirations and design motivations. In particular, the main aim is to ...trace the reasons why both the building and the area it occupies are now so degraded in the surrounding conditions of the project.
This volume addresses the history of the “Colonia Olivetti” in Brusson (Aosta Valley, Italy), one of the holiday camps provided by the Olivetti Company for the children of its employees. The ...building, designed in 1955-57 by two young Italian architects, Leonardo Fiori and Claudio Conte, is an outstanding case study for several reasons. The two architects were selected through a public competition, in which figures like Carlo Scarpa, Vico Magistretti and Marcello D’Olivo, among others, participated. Therefore, the analysis of these projects, some of which almost completely unknown, offers a cross section of Italian architecture in the years of the so called “Economic Boom”, and highlights some key issues connected with the quick evolution of the country. On the one hand, the alpine context of Brusson required a deep reflection upon the relationship between modern architecture and the natural landscape, in a period during which mass-tourism transformed the way people experienced the mountain. On the other, the update of educational theories and pedagogical programs followed by the Olivetti Company led to a complete redefinition of the architectural typology – the “Colonia” – which Fascism had deeply characterized with propagandistic and political purposes during the 1920s and 1930s. The search for the autonomy of the child – as opposed to the previous decade’s tendency to sublimate the individual into the masses – produced a pedagogical renewal which had profound consequences on this kind of architecture. The winning project, conceived by Leonardo Fiori and Claudio Conte, provided a well-balanced answer to the many issues at stake, thanks to a careful approach to the natural and cultural context as well as to their innovative technical research. In collaboration with the Pasotti Company, which had extensive experience in the field of demountable structures, Fiori and Conte developed a new prefabricated building system that was connected to much of the contemporary research at the time. The Colonia Olivetti would become a “model-building”, a starting point for a long series of other structures such as the Pirovano lodge in the Dolomites and the many prefabricated school buildings that would spread from Northern to Southern Italy. The volume retraces the history of this outstanding building, and deals with all the themes that influenced its creation and character, thanks to a thorough survey carried out in many archives (Archivio del Moderno – USI, Balerna; Olivetti Historical Archive, Ivrea; Carlo Scarpa Archive, Treviso; Vico Magistretti Archive, Milano; Municipal Archive, Milano; Municipal Archive, Brusson; etc.). In addition to the text, the volume features a remarkable iconographical apparatus, parts of which were previously unknown, composed of architectural drawings, sketches, documents and pictures, including those by the photographer Enrico Cano, who – in a dialogue with the author – shot the building in 2019 in order to document its present condition.
This article discusses the impact of INA-Casa-the dominant Italian reconstruction plan that operated between 1949 and 1963-on Italian and international architectural debate. It focuses on the role of ...the so-called manualetti, a series of booklets that guided the designers of the INA-Casa programme. Published by the INA-Casa architecture office in 1949 and 1950 under the supervision of the rationalist architect Adalberto Libera, the booklets openly criticised rationalism and the international style in favour of a re-evaluation of vernacular and historical architectural characteristics. The article proposes a new reading of the second booklet, devoted to urban planning, analysing its structure and questioning its agency for the projects developed under the plan. It argues that its use of texts and images corresponds to the dichotomy between rules and models, as explored by Françoise Choay. The article delves into the notion of the model as the "imaginative tool" that makes urban planning possible, identifying the manualetti as normative models. It proposes that the influence of Libera's models on Italian architecture has been overlooked and must be framed afresh within the broader historical debate on Italian "neorealism," which, a few years later, would result in the "watershed" represented by early Italian postmodernism.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
AbstractThe period 1922-1943 —the so-called fascist venthenium— was a fruitful and creative time in Italian architecture. Its rich and plural fundamentals established singular relationships between ...classical and modern cultures, which transcends their historical moment and present new topics for analysis and reflection. To know and appreciate its architecture, we will use the journeys of the professionals who came to Rome from all over the world to participate in the International Congress of Architects in 1935, considering the Congress as a space of opportunity for that reflection, and taking the visits around Rome scheduled by the organizers as a source of the architectural and urban interests of its time, and a reflection of the trends that were stirring then in Italy.ResumenEl periodo entre 1922 y 1943 —el llamado ventenio fascista— fue una época fecunda y creativa en la arquitectura italiana. Sus bases ricas y plurales establecieron relaciones singulares entre el mundo cultural clásico y el moderno, que trascienden su momento histórico y plantean en nues-tros días nuevos temas de análisis y reflexión. Para conocer y valorar su arquitectura y su modelo urbano, nos serviremos del viaje al que fueron llevados los profesionales que de todo el mundo llegaron a Roma para participar en el Congreso Internacional de Arquitectos en 1935, considerando el Congreso como un espacio de oportunidad para esa reflexión y tomando las visitas a la ciudad programadas por los organizadores como fuente de los intereses arquitectónicos y urbanos de su tiempo, reflejo de las tendencias que se agitaban entonces en Italia.
Full-size models are powerful and expansive tools required in critical constructive situations and contexts. Part of both sculptural and architectural creative processes, they have been privileged by ...Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Bernini, who were architects and sculptors at the same time. Several documented cases of their real-size models reproducing portions of buildings on-site and modified ad libitum (at one's pleasure) are discussed here. Promoted in major Roman projects, full-size models served many purposes, from testing innovative solutions to public events and political propaganda. In more recent times, they continued to be central to urban, architectural, and artistic works, implicitly intertwined with the production of exhibitions and movies, which were promoted by the fascist party between the 1920s and 1940s in Italy, encouraging and enhancing the media potential of architecture.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
On interior finish of 'retrofit architecture', there are two methods for concealing air-conditioning, lighting units, and their pipework newly installed in retro parts. One is to build false floor, ...wall, and ceiling on retro parts in order to conceal the pipework. The other is to partially cover the pipework in order not to spoil the visual appeal of the retro parts. We conducted a statistical analysis of 95 retrofit architecture in Italy to find out how these two methods were used differently. The results show that the balance between them depends on existing architectural conditions and MEP systems.
This article studies the architectural design and cultural significance of Villa Namazee, a modernist building designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti in Tehran. The study explores how the building, ...once a symbol of modernity and progress, has been neglected, delisted from the national heritage, and fallen into disrepair. Focusing primarily on the case of Villa Namazee in Tehran, Iran, as an example of Ponti’s projects in the Middle Eastern context, the second part of this paper aims to reconsider and re-narrate Gio Ponti’s project in Tehran. In this context, the article sheds light on the nationally and internationally prominent concepts, ideas, collaborations, and design elements of Gio Ponti’s project in Tehran. The paper argues for reevaluating our understanding of heritage and recognizing the importance of preserving modern architectural masterpieces such as Villa Namazee.
The life and works of Battista di Bartolomeo Botticelli have remained to this day almost completely unknown. This article, thanks to new documentary research and a re-examination of Vasari's sources, ...aims to shed light upon the career of a craftsman who executed the monumental carved platform 'alla veneziana' of the Salone dei Cinquecento, and was also Vasari's trusted carpenter. He was already active in Rome in the 1550's under the rule of Pope Julius III, where he constructed stages and friezes in the palaces belonging to the Pope and to Cardinal Ricci on Via Giulia. He was also active in Palazzo Vecchio, where he designed carved ceilings for the Quartiere di Eleonora and the platform of the Terrace of Saturn in the Quartiere degli Elementi, works which underline the central role played by Botticelli in Vasari's fertile worksite, in a field such as the art of carpentry which still requires today new and in-depth research by scholars.
