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| Architecture of Italy |
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Italian modern and contemporary architecture refers to architecture in Italy during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Art Nouveau style was introduced in Italy by figures such as Giuseppe Sommaruga and Ernesto Basile (the former designed the Palazzo Castiglioni and the latter expanded the Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome). The principles of this new style were published in 1914 in the Manifesto dell'Architettura Futurista (Manifesto of Futurist Architecture) by Antonio Sant'Elia. The Italian group of architects Gruppo 7 (1926) embraced Rationalism and Modernism principles. After the dissolution of the group, its distinguished figures Giuseppe Terragni (Casa del Fascio, Como), Adalberto Libera (Villa Malaparte in Capri) and Giovanni Michelucci (Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence, in collaboration) emerged. During the Fascist period, the so-called "Novecento movement" flourished, with figures such as Gio Ponti, Peter Aschieri, Giovanni Muzio. This movement was based on the rediscovery of imperial Rome. Marcello Piacentini, who was responsible for the urban transformations of several cities in Italy, and remembered for the disputed Via della Conciliazione in Rome, devised a form of "simplified Neoclassicism".
The period of time following the end of World War II was marked by several architectural talents, such as Luigi Moretti, Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini, Giò Ponti, and Tomaso Buzzi, amongst others, with various styles. Pier Luigi Nervi, for example, designed bold and concrete structures, and acquired an international reputation: his work also influenced Riccardo Morandi and Sergio Musmeci. In a series of interesting debates, brought forward by critics such as Bruno Zevi, Rationalism prevailed, of which the Rome Termini Station can be said to be a paradigmatic work. The neorealism of Giovanni Michelucci (designer of numerous churches in Tuscany), Charles Aymonino, Mario Ridolfi and others (INA-Casa neighbourhoods) was followed by the Neoliberty style (seen in earlier works of Vittorio Gregotti) and Brutalist architecture (Torre Velasca in Milan group BBPR, a residential building via Piagentina in Florence, Leonardo Savioli and works by Giancarlo De Carlo).
Carlo Scarpa executed many modernist projects throughout the Veneto region and particularly in Venice. Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright did not build anything in Italy, as opposed to Alvar Aalto (Santa Maria Assunta (Riola) Church of the Assumption in Riola, Vergato), Kenzo Tange (towers of Bologna Fair, the floor of Naples central business district (CDN)) and Oscar Niemeyer (home of Mondadori in Segrate). The Postmodern style in architecture, anticipated by Paolo Portoghesi around 1960, can be seen in the "Teatro del Mondo" (Theatre of the World) built by Aldo Rossi for the Venice Biennale of 1980.
Rationalism also influenced Modernism in Italian architecture. Particularly, this design ethos reconciled the modern aesthetic ideals with religion, since this particular motif was not inimical to the priorities of the modern Italian architects. It gave rise to the so-called "secular-spirituality" – an element in Italian modernism – that focuses on the concept of enlightened rationalism. [1] Another aspect of Italian modernism involves the diversity of interpretations with respect to how modernity is experienced. For example, the northern regions interpreted unornamented design as a rejection of culture and style. [1]
Among the principal architects working in Italy between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries were Renzo Piano (Stadio San Nicola in Bari, restructuring the Old Port of Genoa, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo), Massimiliano Fuksas (skyscraper in the Piedmont region, Convention Center in the EUR), Gae Aulenti (the Railway Museum (Naples metro) of Naples underground), the Swiss Mario Botta (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, renovation of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan), Zaha Hadid (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, skyscraper "Lo Storto" in Milan), Richard Meier (Church of God Merciful Father and the casket of the Ara Pacis, in Rome), Norman Foster (Campus Luigi Einaudi in Turin, and the Belfiore station in Florence), Daniel Libeskind (skyscraper "Il Curvo" in Milan) and Arata Isozaki (Palasport Olimpico in Turin, with Pier Paolo Maggiora and Marco Brizio, "Il Dritto" skyscraper in Milan).
One of the prominent features of the postmodernist architecture in Italy can be identified as a reaction to modernism and to the fascist regime, which appropriated classical architectural forms and modernity. After these periods, there was an identifiable attempt to search for new design directions. Emergent works began to demonstrate atmospheres of nostalgia and memory. [2] A group of young architects such as those who formed the group "La Tendenza" (e.g. Carlo Aymonino, Giorgio Grassi and Aldo Rossi) began to explore the question of memory and the glory of the Italian past, integrating their motifs in their works as physical presence and poetic content. [2] They endeavored to expose the weaknesses of modernism, such as their critique of urbanism.
Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He was one of the leading proponents of the postmodern movement.
EUR is a residential and business district in Rome, Italy, part of the Municipio IX.
Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known worldwide as a structural engineer and architect and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete, especially with numerous notable thin shell structures worldwide.
The Cimitero Monumentale is one of the two largest cemeteries in Milan, Italy, the other one being the Cimitero Maggiore. It is noted for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments.
Pirelli Tower is a 32-storey, 127 m (417 ft) skyscraper in Milan, Italy. The base of the building is 1,900 m2 (20,000 sq ft), with a length of 75.5 m (248 ft) and a width of 20.5 m (67 ft). The construction used approximately 30,000 m3 (1,100,000 cu ft) of concrete. The building weighs close to 70,000 t with a volume of 125,324 m3 (4,425,800 cu ft).
Firenze Santa Maria Novella or Stazione di Santa Maria Novella is the main railway station in Florence, Italy. The station is used by 59 million people every year and is one of the busiest in Italy.
Giovanni "Gio" Ponti was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher.
Giuseppe Pagano was an Italian architect, notable for his involvement in the movement of rationalist architecture in Italy up to the end of the Second World War. He designed exhibitions, furniture and interiors and was an amateur photographer. He was also a long-time editor of the magazine Casabella.
Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period or region, due to Italy's division into various small states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs. Italy is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of aqueducts, temples and similar structures during ancient Rome, the founding of the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th century, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world, notably in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America during the late-17th to early 20th centuries.
Franco Albini was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect, designer and university instructor in design.
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work De architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. The formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Eighteenth-century progressive art theory opposed the Baroque use of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason.
Marcello Piacentini was an Italian urban theorist and one of the main proponents of Italian Fascist architecture.
La Rinascente is a high-end Italian department store chain that operates nine stores in Italy, including two flagship locations in Milan and Rome.
Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect, urban planner and designer, was born in Pistoia, Tuscany, on 2 January 1891 and died on the night of 31 December 1990, two days before his 100th birthday, at his studio-home in Fiesole, in Florence's hills, now the headquarters of his Foundation. He had the good fortune to live a long life almost entirely within the span of the twentieth century, giving us a valuable witness through his work with innovative architectural vernaculars and proposals, from his understanding of the complexity of events, transformations, and ideas that animated the twentieth century. He was one of the major Italian architects of that century, known for famous projects such as the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the San Giovanni Battista church on the Autostrada del Sole.
Italian design refers to all forms of design in Italy, including interior design, urban design, fashion design, and architectural design. Italy is recognized as a worldwide trendsetter and leader in design. The architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni claimed, "Quite simply, we are the best. We have more imagination, more culture, and are better mediators between the past and the future". Italy today still exerts a vast influence on urban design, industrial design, interior design, and fashion design worldwide.
This timeline shows the periods of various architectural styles in the architecture of Italy. Italy's architecture spans almost 3,500 years, from Etruscan and Ancient Roman architecture to Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Fascist, and Italian modern and contemporary architecture.
Pietro Porcinai is renowned as one of the most outstanding Italian landscape architects of the twentieth century. He designed a wide variety of projects on the most diverse scales: gardens and public parks, industrial districts, hotels and tourist villages, motorways and agricultural areas. The hundreds of projects implemented in Italy and abroad comprise the most extraordinary “landscaped” gardens, perfectly integrated within the surroundings and so natural as to appear untouched by human hand.
Paolo De Poli was an Italian enameller and painter.
If we can speak of an Italian art of enamel, it is thanks to De Poli, to the road he opened up and followed faithfully, to the example of his orthodox technique, to his sureness of touch, to the esteem and admiration he has won. And we should to be grateful to him for this also. Gio Ponti
Eugenio Soncini was an Italian architect.
