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Material Legacies: Italian modernism and the postwar history of case del fascio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2019

Lucy M. Maulsby
Lucy M. Maulsby*
Affiliation:
School of Architecture, Northeastern University, Boston, USA
*
*Email: l.maulsby@northeastern.edu
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Abstract

In recent decades, architectural historians, preservationists, and the general public have shown a growing interest in Fascist-era buildings. Many of the most high-profile examples are those associated with the monumental excesses of the regime. However, new attention has also been focused on more modest buildings that are significant examples of interwar Italian modernism or Rationalism, including former party headquarters (case del fascio). Taking as primary examples works by Giuseppe Terragni, the architect most often associated with Rationalism, as well by Luigi Carlo Danieri and Luigi Vietti, whose interwar contributions to Italian modernism have been less often the focus of scholarly attention, this article traces the postwar histories of case del fascio with the aim of better understanding the ways in which architecture and politics intersect and some of the consequences of this for the contemporary Italian architectural landscape.

Italian summary

Negli ultimi decenni, storici dell’architettura, conservazionisti e il pubblico in generale hanno mostrato un interesse sempre maggiore negli edifici risalenti al periodo fascista e ai principali eccessi del Regime sono stati associati molti edifici di alto profilo. Tuttavia, si dedica una nuova attenzione ad edifici più modesti che rappresentano esempi significativi, come le case del fascio, di un periodo tra la Prima e la Seconda guerra mondiale: il Modernismo italiano o Razionalismo. Verranno analizzati i primi esempi del lavoro di Giuseppe Terragni, l’architetto che più spesso viene associato al Razionalismo, così come Luigi Carlo Danieri e Luigi Vietti, al cui contributo interbellico al Modernismo italiano è stata data minore importanza in ambito accademico. Questo articolo ripercorre le storie delle case del fascio dopo la Seconda guerra mondiale con lo scopo di comprendere più approfonditamente come avvenne l’intersezione tra l’architettura e la politica del tempo. Verranno infine analizzate alcune conseguenze di questo periodo storico nel paesaggio architettonico dell’Italia contemporanea.

Keywords

modern architectureItalyFascismdifficult historiesadaptive reusearchitecture and politics.
Type
Special Issue
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 24 , Issue 2: Special Issue: The Difficult Heritage of Italian Fascism , May 2019 , pp. 159 - 177
Copyright
© 2019 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

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References

Archives

Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS)Google Scholar
Ministero delle Finanze (MF)Google Scholar
Partitio Nazionale Fascista (PNF)Google Scholar
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)Google Scholar
Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ)Google Scholar
Journals and periodicalsGoogle Scholar
Architettura Google Scholar
Corriere della Sera Google Scholar
Casabella Costruzioni Google Scholar

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