LESSONS: HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY CITY AND LANDSCAPE
LESSON 1: THE ITALIAN POST -WAR HISTORIC CITY AS A COUNTER -MODEL FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY IN ITALY
Short history of turnout Fascism
23 March 1919 Start Fascism movement
9 November 1921 Start Fascism party
28 October 1922 March on Rome → Start of Fasism regime of Mussolini
• Nice fact, Mussolini was in Milan for if the coupe goes wrong to go to Swiss
30 October 1922 King Victor Emanuelle III asks Mussolini to create a government, instead acting with force to gets
down the fascist party
1923 Acerbo-law = biggest party gets majority in parlement
1924 Murder Matteotti by fascist, for noticing election fraud by fascists
• on behalf of Rossi (or Mussolini)
30 Januari 1925 Mussolini picks responsibility of murder Matteotti, people saying this is start of fascism period in
Italy
Part 1. Fascism period – Fascism would cause anti-modernism/ led by the
dictator Classical architecture = a style
o Fascism wanted architecture to express buildings in classical ways that originated in ancient Greece
(Arches, columns, etc.) and Rome, characterized by
o Fascism massage ways to create simple/classical architecture to make it principles of beauty, harmony,
easy to follow Mussolini ideology and functionality, with a strong
▪ He thinks for you emphasis on symmetry,
o To go against fascist architecture, architects made non-symmetrical proportion, and the use of
buildings, no arches or columns, SO non classic shapes. columns
▪ Anti-fascism had different facades on each side to show anti-
symmetric/floorplan layout were inconsistent throughout the floors (challenging simplistic ideas)
o Giovanni Michelucci (1891 -1990)
▪ Expansion of the Cassa di Risparmio di
Pistoia e Pescia (1930-1948)
▪ Finding connections form old building to
new building
▪ E.G. using same stones as
historical buildings
Figure 2: Giovanni Michelucci,
Figure 2: Cassa di Risparmio di
Pistoia e Pescia (1930-1948)
,These two did not agree with the work of fascism
➢ Edoardo Persico (1900-1936)
o Only to serve a totalitarian state
o Aesthetic mask for political violence
o Missing true art in architecture
➢ Giuseppe Pagano (1896 -1945)
o regime wasn't interested in "truth" or "function"
▪ only wanted propaganda
o try convinced Mussolini that ultimate fascism
architecture is also truth X
o SS sent to camp and killed 1945
➢ Domus web architecture journal
o Started in 1928 by Gio Ponti
o It covers global architecture, art, and design – and
criticism against fascist architecture
Figure 3: Edoardo Persico (Napels) and Giuseppe Pagano
➢ Casabella Continuita Italian journal (1954-1964)
o After fascist period about how architecture managed fascism time
o Added the word ‘continuita’ (EN: continuity) meaning:
▪ Architecture could not be locked by fascism
▪ Architecture had to go on but learning from the past that couldn’t be forgotten, ‘Environmental
preexistence’
• The review of the language and the insertion of new architecture in the ancient urban
frame.
▪ Its created: “The debate on the reconstruction.’
➢ Torre Valasca Milano (1958)
o Created by BBPR-group
▪ Name derived from 4 last name of families
▪ Giorgio Ciucci → ‘’waver between different and conflicting
positions’
▪ Development of Rationalism
o Changing skyline of the city
o built in a hole made from a bomb
o Colors were white and light pink
▪ Same colors as stones used for the Catedral in Milano
Rationalism = The formulation was Figure 4: Anti-fascism building
Milan (Windows are not similar/
taken up and further developed in
closed or open)
the architectural studies of the
Renaissance. Eighteenth-century
progressive art theory opposed the
Baroque use of illusionism with the
classic beauty of truth and reason.
,Part 2. Reconstruction in Italy and the second postwar Period
➢ Condition before the destruction of the Second World War
Social dynamics, economic dynamics, architectural dynamics
➢ After the destruction of the Second World War
o Italian architects mapped all damaged buildings, public space, voids to show a destroyed map of Italy
▪ Find a relationship between destroyed historical areas and modern architecture
▪ Most important expression contemporary architecture was in 1900-1940
A new awakening after the tragedy: from reconstruction plans to INA-casa programs
1940 -1945 Raids and Bombings throughout Italy
1943 -1945 Devastation and the housing crisis
1948-1952 A = MARSHALL PLAN
The transatlantic exchange and the Italian - Reconstruction – ERP →
ERP = European reconstruction Plan
- In this plan:
➢ Marshall plan named: (minister of foreign agencies)
o Amerika gave money to rebuild Italy
o Distribute through different governmental agencies
▪ Fondo per l'Incremento Edilizio (Building
Increment Fund)
▪ 1/3 Banks reuse of fundings (Lira Fund)
• Buy products form USA → this
payments later used for buildings
▪ 2/3 Plans to rebuild houses (INA-Casa
Plan)
• to rebuild the social community and fabric of Italian neighborhoods
• made neighborhoods outside the city revitalized to give people outside the city a better
life
O So, RECONSTRUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT
1943-1947 B = UNRRA – (UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION )
CASAS (COMITATO AMMINISTRATIVO SOCCORSO AI SENZATETT )
‘ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE HOMELESS ’
➢ UNRRA-CASAS (Focused on Southern Italy)
O focusing on rebuilding homes destroyed in the war and improving rural, agricultural, and suburban areas
▪ To address the housing crisis
O Supported bij the UNRRA funds and driven by figures like Adriano Olivetti
O It built villages and residential units (eg. Matera, Sicily and Rome)
O Architectural style focusing on rapid, affordable, and sustainable social housing in rual and suburban
areas
, 1949 -1963 C = INA-CASA-PLAN (l'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni ) OR Fanfani
National Insurance Institute → Organizing Institute for American money
o the Minister of Labour Amintore Fanfani
o to build public housing → by the INA–home management
o 14 year plan
➢ Architecture style Italian neorealism = aesthetic and social
o Neorealism style → based on movement focusing on authentic, vernacular,
Italian neorealism in film and human-centric design, heavily influenced
industry by Neorealist cinema and literature. It
▪ focus on the daily prioritized organic community spaces,
struggles of ordinary traditional materials, and local building
people, reflecting the traditions to foster a "new humanism" in
poverty and moral residential, social housing projects
crises of the era
o The architect and designer Giò
Realism = emerging primarily in the 1840s,
Ponti
emphasizes the honest use of materials and
Figure 5: INA - CASA
functionality, rejecting superficial decoration building by Gio Ponti
for structures designed based on their
purpose.
➢ Locations
1947-1956 QT8
Milan
o Italy’s vision of modernity through a model neighborhood
o An experimental development based on democratic principles
o the model for urban expansion, housing people in need post-
war
o large-scale buildings, medium-scale houses that consist of a
few flats, and building rows that undulate and vary in proportion
to one another.
o dedication to quality of livelihood, effectively.
1949 -1954 TIBURTINO DISTRICT
Rome
o The manifesto of architectural Neorealism
o controlling through irregular street hierarchies
o non-uniformity of architecture
▪ levels, lines, and setbacks, inspired by
medieval spatial contiguities
o unorganized planning
▪ social and moral rebuilding of a people
o Abstract functionalistic repetition did not serve the
people; it served politics and efficiency
▪ a clear distance from the old.
o varying housing typologies
▪ forms depending on the topography of the Roman Campagna (Area around rome)
LESSON 1: THE ITALIAN POST -WAR HISTORIC CITY AS A COUNTER -MODEL FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY IN ITALY
Short history of turnout Fascism
23 March 1919 Start Fascism movement
9 November 1921 Start Fascism party
28 October 1922 March on Rome → Start of Fasism regime of Mussolini
• Nice fact, Mussolini was in Milan for if the coupe goes wrong to go to Swiss
30 October 1922 King Victor Emanuelle III asks Mussolini to create a government, instead acting with force to gets
down the fascist party
1923 Acerbo-law = biggest party gets majority in parlement
1924 Murder Matteotti by fascist, for noticing election fraud by fascists
• on behalf of Rossi (or Mussolini)
30 Januari 1925 Mussolini picks responsibility of murder Matteotti, people saying this is start of fascism period in
Italy
Part 1. Fascism period – Fascism would cause anti-modernism/ led by the
dictator Classical architecture = a style
o Fascism wanted architecture to express buildings in classical ways that originated in ancient Greece
(Arches, columns, etc.) and Rome, characterized by
o Fascism massage ways to create simple/classical architecture to make it principles of beauty, harmony,
easy to follow Mussolini ideology and functionality, with a strong
▪ He thinks for you emphasis on symmetry,
o To go against fascist architecture, architects made non-symmetrical proportion, and the use of
buildings, no arches or columns, SO non classic shapes. columns
▪ Anti-fascism had different facades on each side to show anti-
symmetric/floorplan layout were inconsistent throughout the floors (challenging simplistic ideas)
o Giovanni Michelucci (1891 -1990)
▪ Expansion of the Cassa di Risparmio di
Pistoia e Pescia (1930-1948)
▪ Finding connections form old building to
new building
▪ E.G. using same stones as
historical buildings
Figure 2: Giovanni Michelucci,
Figure 2: Cassa di Risparmio di
Pistoia e Pescia (1930-1948)
,These two did not agree with the work of fascism
➢ Edoardo Persico (1900-1936)
o Only to serve a totalitarian state
o Aesthetic mask for political violence
o Missing true art in architecture
➢ Giuseppe Pagano (1896 -1945)
o regime wasn't interested in "truth" or "function"
▪ only wanted propaganda
o try convinced Mussolini that ultimate fascism
architecture is also truth X
o SS sent to camp and killed 1945
➢ Domus web architecture journal
o Started in 1928 by Gio Ponti
o It covers global architecture, art, and design – and
criticism against fascist architecture
Figure 3: Edoardo Persico (Napels) and Giuseppe Pagano
➢ Casabella Continuita Italian journal (1954-1964)
o After fascist period about how architecture managed fascism time
o Added the word ‘continuita’ (EN: continuity) meaning:
▪ Architecture could not be locked by fascism
▪ Architecture had to go on but learning from the past that couldn’t be forgotten, ‘Environmental
preexistence’
• The review of the language and the insertion of new architecture in the ancient urban
frame.
▪ Its created: “The debate on the reconstruction.’
➢ Torre Valasca Milano (1958)
o Created by BBPR-group
▪ Name derived from 4 last name of families
▪ Giorgio Ciucci → ‘’waver between different and conflicting
positions’
▪ Development of Rationalism
o Changing skyline of the city
o built in a hole made from a bomb
o Colors were white and light pink
▪ Same colors as stones used for the Catedral in Milano
Rationalism = The formulation was Figure 4: Anti-fascism building
Milan (Windows are not similar/
taken up and further developed in
closed or open)
the architectural studies of the
Renaissance. Eighteenth-century
progressive art theory opposed the
Baroque use of illusionism with the
classic beauty of truth and reason.
,Part 2. Reconstruction in Italy and the second postwar Period
➢ Condition before the destruction of the Second World War
Social dynamics, economic dynamics, architectural dynamics
➢ After the destruction of the Second World War
o Italian architects mapped all damaged buildings, public space, voids to show a destroyed map of Italy
▪ Find a relationship between destroyed historical areas and modern architecture
▪ Most important expression contemporary architecture was in 1900-1940
A new awakening after the tragedy: from reconstruction plans to INA-casa programs
1940 -1945 Raids and Bombings throughout Italy
1943 -1945 Devastation and the housing crisis
1948-1952 A = MARSHALL PLAN
The transatlantic exchange and the Italian - Reconstruction – ERP →
ERP = European reconstruction Plan
- In this plan:
➢ Marshall plan named: (minister of foreign agencies)
o Amerika gave money to rebuild Italy
o Distribute through different governmental agencies
▪ Fondo per l'Incremento Edilizio (Building
Increment Fund)
▪ 1/3 Banks reuse of fundings (Lira Fund)
• Buy products form USA → this
payments later used for buildings
▪ 2/3 Plans to rebuild houses (INA-Casa
Plan)
• to rebuild the social community and fabric of Italian neighborhoods
• made neighborhoods outside the city revitalized to give people outside the city a better
life
O So, RECONSTRUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT
1943-1947 B = UNRRA – (UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION )
CASAS (COMITATO AMMINISTRATIVO SOCCORSO AI SENZATETT )
‘ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE HOMELESS ’
➢ UNRRA-CASAS (Focused on Southern Italy)
O focusing on rebuilding homes destroyed in the war and improving rural, agricultural, and suburban areas
▪ To address the housing crisis
O Supported bij the UNRRA funds and driven by figures like Adriano Olivetti
O It built villages and residential units (eg. Matera, Sicily and Rome)
O Architectural style focusing on rapid, affordable, and sustainable social housing in rual and suburban
areas
, 1949 -1963 C = INA-CASA-PLAN (l'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni ) OR Fanfani
National Insurance Institute → Organizing Institute for American money
o the Minister of Labour Amintore Fanfani
o to build public housing → by the INA–home management
o 14 year plan
➢ Architecture style Italian neorealism = aesthetic and social
o Neorealism style → based on movement focusing on authentic, vernacular,
Italian neorealism in film and human-centric design, heavily influenced
industry by Neorealist cinema and literature. It
▪ focus on the daily prioritized organic community spaces,
struggles of ordinary traditional materials, and local building
people, reflecting the traditions to foster a "new humanism" in
poverty and moral residential, social housing projects
crises of the era
o The architect and designer Giò
Realism = emerging primarily in the 1840s,
Ponti
emphasizes the honest use of materials and
Figure 5: INA - CASA
functionality, rejecting superficial decoration building by Gio Ponti
for structures designed based on their
purpose.
➢ Locations
1947-1956 QT8
Milan
o Italy’s vision of modernity through a model neighborhood
o An experimental development based on democratic principles
o the model for urban expansion, housing people in need post-
war
o large-scale buildings, medium-scale houses that consist of a
few flats, and building rows that undulate and vary in proportion
to one another.
o dedication to quality of livelihood, effectively.
1949 -1954 TIBURTINO DISTRICT
Rome
o The manifesto of architectural Neorealism
o controlling through irregular street hierarchies
o non-uniformity of architecture
▪ levels, lines, and setbacks, inspired by
medieval spatial contiguities
o unorganized planning
▪ social and moral rebuilding of a people
o Abstract functionalistic repetition did not serve the
people; it served politics and efficiency
▪ a clear distance from the old.
o varying housing typologies
▪ forms depending on the topography of the Roman Campagna (Area around rome)
