Costruzioni letterarie e valori cromatici nel Danteum di Pietro Lingeri e Giuseppe Terragni

In 1938 Giuseppe Terragni and Pietro Lingeri designed the Danteum, a monument to be erected in the new via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome. The project area, before the Basilica di Massenzio, is endowed with special symbolic value, since during the Fascist period this was already considered a suitable site for the architectural competition for a Palazzo Littorio. Both in the 1934 competition and in the 1938 project the problems connected to the inclusion of new elements onto the ancient remains called into question the chromatic issue as one which designers should take into far greater account. In this respect, the Danteum is the monument that more than others displays a quite interesting sequence of spacial structures which parallel Dante’s work while, at the same time, offering a peculiar chromatic synthesis in the ideal and material relationship with the various features of the historical period and the archaeological site. In this work the resulting mix of literary and architectural language was to serve as a tool to promote the ideology of the Fascist regime, while making of Dante Alighieri, through his work and thought, the interpreter of an autocratic view of political power

La arquitectura como texto: el Danteum, entre la selva y el paraíso

1. May 1983. Rino Valdameri, director of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (the Brera Academy of Fine Arts), and Senator Alessandro Poss, propose to the authorities of the city of Rome a monument in honour of the most celebrated poet of Italians. This project is entrusted to architects Pietro Lingeri and Giuseppe Terragni, and is given the name Danteum. In October 1938, architects and promoters were called on Thursday 10th November, at 5.30pm, at Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (Doge¿s Palace) in order to present their project to Benito Mussolini. In May 1939, a second audience with the Duce had to be cancelled and the possible execution of the project was threatened. On 1st September 1939 Germany invades Poland. Due to constant requests for a second audience, promoters receive the answer of the Segretario particolare di S.E. il Capo del Governo, who announces that better times for the audience are to come. A day later, Terragni is mobilized and assigned to the third regiment of artillery of the army at Cremona. Nevertheless, the project suffered several modifications until spring 1941. By the end of January 1943, Terragni was repatriated and taken to the military hospital in Cesenatico. On 19th July Terragni died suddenly a few meters away from his house. On 25th July, king Victor Emmanuel III of Italy gives the order to arrest Mussolini. During the bombing of the allied troops in 1944, Lingeri saves the original documents of the Danteum project: a series of drawings with mixed technique, watercolour and ink on Fabriano white paper, assembled on rigid panels made to scale 1:100, and a wooden model, scale 1:50. On 28th April 1945, Mussolini was seized and executed by the partisans. In September 1957, the Danteum was published by the first time in a magazine. 2. The project¿s central argument fixes a composite correspondence with Commedia (The Divine Comedy), from the common structures ¿proportions and measures- that the architecture work may take from Dante¿s poem. Such dependence between architecture and literature has consigned the Danteum, from time to time, further than the architecture field, provoking its exile from the inscrutable architectonic specificity, condemned by its involvement against the autonomy of the discipline, and for such a personal and excessive gesture. 3. Why a hybrid object, not very convenient, instead of the major works of its author? The fissure that emanates from the Danteum does not refer to architecture as a stationary, closed and finite product, but to a transition between the univocally formal and the narrative vertigo. Within this process, which unites and separates the arbitrary issues from the strictly disciplinary, is the will of our choice. With its liminal logic, the Danteum spreads like a shadow in times of modern brightness. A kind of non-architecture as an existential point, which may be said to be ¿not totally¿ and which exception makes everything exist. In this landscape of non-arranged notions, the coexistence of architectonic and non-architectonic terms gives rise to paradoxes and antonyms very propitious for the analysis of uncertainties spread under the paradigmatic dominance of modern architecture. 4. The most relevant is not the search of the author, but the process of this search. Lingeri and Terragni are only suspicious and respond only to research interests. The research process has not followed a straight line in the attempt to examine the Danteum project anatomy, which has needed a dramatic and quasi mythological element in order to disguise its modern face. The result is a mosaic of half defined and half blurred, with reflexes, drafts, notes. In this context, history occurs like the movement of a scalpel in the dissection of a corpse.1. Mayo de 1938. Rino Valdameri, presidente de la Academia de Brera, y el senador Alessandro Poss, proponen a las autoridades en Roma un monumento en homenaje al máximo poeta de los italianos. El encargo es encomendado a los arquitectos Pietro Lingeri y Giuseppe Terragni, el nombre del proyecto: el Danteum. En Octubre de 1938, los arquitectos y los promotores son convocados para el jueves 10 de Noviembre, hora 17:30, al Palacio Venecia para presentar el proyecto a Benito Mussolini, Capo de Governo. El proyecto es bien recibido, aprobándose su continuación. En mayo de 1939, es suspendida una segunda audiencia con el Duce, la posible realización del proyecto se ve amenazada. El 1 de septiembre de 1939 Alemania invade Polonia. A los continuos pedidos de esta segunda audiencia, el 4 de septiembre de este mismo año, los promotores reciben la respuesta del Segretario particolare di S.E. il Capo del Governo, anunciando que el actual momento no es el más oportuno. Un día después Terragni es movilizado y asignado al III regimiento de artillería de cuerpo de armada en Cremona; aún así se realizarán algunas modificaciones al proyecto hasta la primavera de 1941. A finales de enero de 1943, Terragni es repatriado e internado en el hospital militar de Cesenático. El 19 de julio, inesperadamente, Terragni muere a pocos metros de su casa. El 25 de julio, el rey Victor Manuel III hace apresar a Mussolini. Durante el bombardeo aliado de 1944, Lingeri salva los originales del proyecto del Danteum de ser destruidos: una serie de dibujos con técnica mixta, acuarela y tinta sobre papel blanco de Fabriano, montados sobre paneles rígidos a escala 1:100, y una maqueta realizada en madera, escala 1:50. El 28 de abril de 1945 Mussolini es capturado y fusilado por los partisanos. En septiembre de 1957, el Danteum es publicado por primera vez en una revista. 2. El argumento central del proyecto establece una correspondencia compositiva con la Divina Commedia, desde las estructuras comunes -proporciones y medidas- que la obra de arquitectura puede sustraer del poema de Dante. Tal dependencia entre arquitectura y literatura ha relegado al Danteum, de tanto en tanto, más allá del confín del territorio arquitectónico, provocando su destierro del centro hermético de la especificidad arquitectónica, condenado por sus implicaciones contra la autonomía de la disciplina, y por esa gesticulación tan suya y excesiva de histrión. 3. ¿Por qué un objeto híbrido, de género incómodo, y no las obras mayores de su autor? El intersticio que se crea con el Danteum no alude a la arquitectura como un producto estacionario, cerrado y finito, sino como una transición entre lo unívocamente formal y el vértigo narrativo. En esta liminidad, que une y separa lo arbitrario de lo estrictamente disciplinar, está la voluntad de nuestra elección. Con su lógica fronteriza el Danteum se despliega como una sombra en tiempos de claridad moderna. Una especie de no-arquitectura como punto existencial del que puede decirse que no es “del todo” y que además hace existir el todo por su excepción. En este paisaje de nociones no concertadas, la coexistencia de términos arquitectónicos y no arquitectónicos da lugar a paradojas y antinomias muy propicias para el análisis de las incertidumbres sembradas en el dominio paradigmático de la arquitectura moderna. 4. Lo importante no es la búsqueda del autor, sino la procesualidad de esa búsqueda, de ese acto. Lingeri y Terragni quedan como meros sospechosos, y a veces respondiendo sólo a intereses narrativos. No hay ninguna dirección lineal en el intento de examinar la anatomía de este acontecimiento fenomenal que ha precisado un elemento dramático y cuasi mitológico para encubrir su vestidura moderna. Lo que queda es un mosaico de figuras medio definidas medio borrosas, de reflejos, de apuntes, de notas. En este apenas, la historia tiene lugar como el movimiento de un bísturi en la disección de un cadáver

Back to history

In the following text is described the cultural phenomenon in Italy inspired by the anniversary of creation of the Manifesto of Futurism. It relate to a large extent to architecture. Organized exhibitions memorized the most prominent architects from the first half of the twentieth century, their works and completed projects of

The Terragni’s idea of mass: analysis of the monument to Roberto Sarfatti

[ES] Entre 1934 y 1935 Guiuseppe Terragni proyecta el monumento a Roberto Sarfatti. Esta obra es uno de sus monumentos funerarios de los que más documentación original se conservan: dos soluciones preliminares esbozadas y dos soluciones totalmente definidas; construyéndose una de ellas. El análisis de estas soluciones permite indagar en el proceso proyectual de Terragni y descifrar algunas de las claves de su arquitectura. El estudio de la Tumba Sarfatti se realiza a partir de la ejecución de las maquetas de las distintas soluciones. Esta investigación gráfica nos muestra con mayor claridad la evolución de la obra y sus parámetros compositivos.[EN] Between 1934 and 1935 Giuseppe Terragni designs the monument to Roberto Sarfatti. This work is one of his funerary monuments from which more original documentation is preserved: two sketched preliminary solutions and two fully defined solutions; one of them being built. The analysis of all these solutions allows to look into Terragni’s designing process and to work out some of the keys of his architecture. The study of the Sarfatti Tomb is carried out based on the realisation of the mock-ups of the different solutions. This graphic investigation shows us with great clarity the evolution and the compositional parameters of the project.Díaz Cabiale, LM. (2020). El concepto de masa en Terragni: análisis del monumento a Roberto Sarfatti. EGA Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 25(39):108-119. https://doi.org/10.4995/ega.2020.11840OJS1081192539CODINACHS, M., QUETGLAS, J., TORRES, J.M. Directores de: Colección de Arquitectura. n.3Giuseppe Terragni Manifiestos, Memorias, Borradores y Polémica, Artes Gráficas Soler. Murcia 1982, p.143EINSENMAN, P. 1970"Dall'oggettoallarelazionali tà: la Casa del Fascio di Terragni." Casabella n.344, pp.38-41EINSENMAN, P. 2003Giuseppe Terragni: transformations, descompositions, critiques. TheMonacelliPressFRAMPTON, K. 1987Historia crítica de la arquitectura moderna. Gustavo Gili p.207PAGANO, P 1930 "I beneficidell'architectura moderna (A propósito di una nuovacostruzione a Como)" La Casa Bella, n.29 pp.11-14PARISI, I. 1996 "Con Terragni." Catálogo Guiuseppe Terragni, La Trienale de Milán y Electa.SCHUMACHER, T. 1992 Guiuseppe Terragni 19041943. Electa p. 113SHAPIRO, E. R. 1996 "Ojetti y Terragni: clasicismo, racionalismo, fascismo."En:Catálogo Guiuseppe Terragni, La Trienale de Milán y Electa.VITALE, D. 1982. "Antiguo y moderno, abstracción y formalismo en la obra de Terragni." 2c Construcción de la ciudad. N. 20-21, pp.4-17.ZEVI, B. 1982Terragni, Colección Paperback Editorial Gustavo Gili. p.21

Introducción a la estructura natural del espacio

Este estudio consta de cuatro capítulos. El primero titulado ‘La aparente condición univoca del espacio’ identifica el contexto teórico-histórico en el que se ha desarrollado el estudio del espacio arquitectónico en donde ciencias alejadas a la disciplina reconocen una polaridad del tiempo y consigo del espacio, mientras que textos de la teoría arquitectónica contemporánea han desarrollado y han contemplado de manera univoca la concepción espacial. En este primer capítulo se pone en evidencia la falta de estudio del polo opuesto que no ha sido estudiado a profundidad, define una posible categorización conceptual en donde la estructura del espacio sea reconocible por sus hechos geométricos más que por valores ‘formalescompositivos’, categoría a la cual se le ha denominado ‘formal-significante’, que permite tener una asociación más certera en un análisis objetual. Considerando que los conceptos que estructuran la teoría arquitectónica deben provenir de la propia disciplina, es decir de objetos arquitectónicos proyectados. El segundo capítulo titulado ‘Espacio Intelectual: El Dialecto Temporal’, analiza un objeto proyectado anteriormente por el autor de esta investigación, análisis de origen taxonómico por las nociones de oposición conceptual que origina su proyección. En este objeto para reconocer la variabilidad del sentido conceptual de los elementos y la asociación de estados antitéticos de materialización y entidades direccionales se estudia la transformación del límite y el contenido espacial-geométrico Este objeto contiene dos conceptos formales-significantes divergentes: uno de correspondencia a la teoría del habitar y otro alterno sin un enlace con una raíz conceptual. Este espacio por su oposición en sus rasgos formalessignificantes alude al polo espacial no estudiado. De la descripción y análisis del objeto arquitectónico se extrae dos tipos de conceptos de correspondencia al polo no estudiado: un concepto formal-significante y un concepto introductorio fenomenológico-existencial. De los conceptos mencionados se estructura la hipótesis específica. La identificación de la ‘paridad-antagónica’ presente en el objeto arquitectónico estudiado permite la identificación de hechos arquitectónicos. La condición de estudios de estos objetos y su no correspondencia con la definición funcional del habitar permite establecer la hipótesis general. El tercer capítulo titulado ‘Comprobación de la hipótesis’, se remite al método de análisis objetual utilizado en ‘El dialecto temporal’ con el que es posible la dilucidación del concepto formal-significante de espacio intelectual en objetos arquitectónicos. Los análisis se realizan en los hechos arquitectónicos identificados por la paridadantagónica: el Cenotafio de newton del arquitecto Etienne Boulleé y el Danteum de Giuseppe Terragni y Pietro Linger

Rifondare la cultura. Motivi ispiratori dell'arte degli anni Trenta attraverso la rivista "Valori Primordiali"

Il concetto di \u201crifondazione\u201d \ue8 alla base di quella parte della cultura pi\uf9 illuminata dell\u2019epoca fascista. La proiezione verso il futuro nella proposta di una nuova modernit\ue0 alternativa, presente nel pensiero di alcuni protagonisti della politica culturale degli anni Venti e Trenta quali Giuseppe Bottai, Antonio Pagano, Sergio Panuzio e della letteratura quali Massimo Bontempelli o lo stesso Filippo Tomaso Marinetti, pu\uf2 essere messa in relazione i \u201cmiti\u201d e le idealit\ue0 del lontano e pi\uf9 recente passato: dall\u2019originario primordiale alla rivoluzione francese. Nell\u2019opera degli artisti italiani degli anni Trenta il connubio moderno-antimoderno pu\uf2 essere assunto quale chiave di lettura di una comune matrice culturale che supera le convenzioni e gli stereotipi e che permette di andare non solo oltre la distinzione astratto e figurativo, ma anche oltre le categorie di avanguardia e di ritorno all\u2019ordine. Tali concetti verranno esemplificati attraverso l\u2019esperienza della rivista \u201cValori Primordiali\u201d e del Gruppo Primordiali Futuristi, al fine di dimostrare come sia possibile affermare che alcuni motivi ispiratori dell\u2019arte, della letteratura e del progetto architettonico degli anni Trenta, al di l\ue0 delle convinzioni politiche individuali, ponessero al centro il tema appunto della \u201crifondazione\u201d della cultura e della societ\ue0 pi\uf9 in generale. Cos\uec si spiega anche la promozione di un\u2019arte come quella murale. I principi ispiratori di tale rifondazione, che pongono l\u2019arte come una chiave di lettura del mondo, verranno inoltre analizzati in continuit\ue0 con quanto avverr\ue0 negli anni a seguire, soprattutto in quelli in cui il rapporto arte-societ\ue0 diventer\ue0 imprescindibile nelle forme, per citare una formula della Biennale del 1976, di arte \u201ccome ambiente sociale\u201d.The concept of "recreating" is at the basis of the most enlightened culture during the fascist era. The yearning towards the future, and the proposal of a new, alternative modernity, as witnessed in the works of eminent cultural and political figures of the 1920s and 1930s - such as Giuseppe Bottai, Antonio Pagano, Sergio Panuzio, as well as writers Massimo Bontempelli and Filippo Tomaso Marinetti \u2013 can be connected to the "myths" and ideals of a both a remote and a more recent past: from the primordial origins to the French Revolution. In the work of Italian artists of the 1930s, the modern-antimodern conjunction can be assumed as a key to a common cultural matrix that overcomes conventions and stereotypes and accounts for an overcoming not only of the abstract-figurative distinction, but also of categories such as avant-garde and \u201crappel a l\u2019ordre\u201d. These concepts will be exemplified through the experience of the journal "Valori Primordiali" and the group of Artisti Primordiali Futuristi, in order to show how several motifs in the art, literature and architectural design of the 1930s, regardless of the political ideas of the individual, centered on the theme of the "recreation" of culture and society in general. This also explains forms of art such as mural painting. The inspirational principles of such recreation, which place art as a key element for the understanding of the world, will also be analyzed in continuity with what happened in later years, especially as the drive towards society became indispensable in the forms of art as \u2013 to quote a formula from the 1976 Biennial \u2013 "a social environment"

Rationalism and Ruins in Roma Mussoliniana: The 1934 Palazzo del Littorio Competition

This dissertation examines the intersection of architecture, urban planning and archaeology in Mussolini’s Rome; in particular, it focuses on the first competition to build the Palazzo del Littorio (1934), the Fascist Party headquarters, on the Via dell’Impero. The competition is singularly important as a barometer and benchmark of Italian interwar architectural practice in the period when the country was at the apogee of its self-confidence and international regard. Yet it was also a moment of aesthetic crisis, when the two stylistic poles of modernism and traditionalism oscillated between acceptance and censure in a struggle to be the dominant style of the professional establishment. At issue in the Palazzo Littorio competition was the prized objective of giving monumental definition to Fascist identity that would resound across the ages. This study traces the attempt of modernist critics and architects, such as Pietro Maria Bardi and Giuseppe Pagano, to make avant-garde architecture the de facto architecture of the state. The Palazzo Littorio competition tested Italian modernism’s capacity to create a suitable representative structure and confront the problem of monumentality. The competition was also inextricably linked to the transformation of the central archaeological area through excavations and road building. The palazzo’s site in the ancient center of Rome made it the primary example of the regime’s attempt to associate contemporary buildings with Roman ruins and thereby root itself in imperial Rome. This study describes the vast program of excavations in the city center and the creation of the Via dell’Impero, a road framed by ruins transformed into a scenographic backdrop to urban spectacle. The objective is not only to illuminate the contours of the competition and the intersection of architecture and archaeology, but also to elucidate the means by which architects answered the dual demands of rhetoric and ruins in the heart of the Eternal City

A comparison between preference judgments of curvature and sharpness in architectural façades

Can curvature drive preference, perceived familiarity, complexity, stability and approachability for architectural façades? In this study, we generated four versions of the same reference building, varying only the amount of curvature introduced in the façade. Participants’ judgments were measured using three experimental methodologies. Multidimensional scaling on forced choices showed that the curved façade was the most preferred. Multidimensional unfolding on ranking task showed that the majority of participants expressed higher preferences for the curved façade compared to the sharp-angled and rectilinear ones. Ratings on different psychological variables provided supporting evidence for curvature significantly influencing liking and approachability judgments. Results from image analyses –using a dynamical model of the visual cortex and a model that characterizes discomfort in terms of adherence to the statistics of natural images – matched behavioural data. We discuss the implications of the findings on our understanding of human preferences, which are intrinsically dynamic and influenced by context and experience.PostprintPeer reviewe

Italian Architecture of the Second Quarter of the 20th Century in the Political Context

Autor je u članku izložio tezu o nemogućnosti jednostavne stilske klasifikacije arhitektonskoga ili urbanističkog stvaranja s obzirom na politički određene termine. Pokazane su nelogičnosti pri svrstavanju arhitekture modernističkih oblikovnih načela "internacionalnog stila" među primjere arhitektonskih ili urbanističkih ostvarenja istinski demokratskih režima na primjeru talijanske graditeljske i projektantske prakse u razdoblju fašističke vladavine. Na primjeru djela nekih talijanskih arhitekata druge četvrtine XX. st. pokazana je ambivalentnost stilskih pristupa unutar jasno profilirane političke situacije i kontradikcije koje iz takve ambivalentnosti polaze.The author considers it is impossible to classify architecture and town planning simply from the aspect of style without considering the political context. On the example of Italian architecture and design in the period of fascist rule he shows it is illogical to place modern Italian architecture of the "international style" alongside the architecture and townplanning of truly democratic regimes. He presents the work of some Italian architects from the second quarter of the 20th century, the ambivalence of style in a clearly profiled political situation, and the contradictions that emerge from this ambivalence

Influências e contributos do racionalismo italiano no desenvolvimento do novo pensamento do movimento moderno. A obra de Cesare Cattaneo : 1912-1943 na segunda geração do racionalismo. Reflexos de uma prática arquitectónica contemporânea

Tese de Mestrado em em Estudos do Espaço e do Habitar em ArquitecturaEsta dissertação tem como objectivo a análise do percurso de Cesare Cattaneo, arquitecto pertencente á segunda geração do racionalismo Italiano. A sua obra, identifica a evolução de um trabalho que, apesar de diminuto, devido à sua prematura morte, é reveladora na ligação que estabelece com outros momentos da produção arquitectónica e artística do século XX. O contexto temporal, que decorre entre as duas Guerras Mundiais, enquadra a fundação de um Estado Fascista em Itália, onde a arquitectura racionalista procurou ser sua representante através de uma comunicação de massas transversal a todas as classes sociais. Para Cesare Cattaneo e para os racionalistas, a arquitectura é entendida enquanto um exercício de síntese, o que para os interesses do Estado se traduzia numa carência de iconografia de fácil entendimento, porque a opção era, antes, recriar um estilo clássico simplificado, a partir de um vislumbre utópico e reaccionário. O trabalho, estrutura-se em três partes: Movimento Moderno Italiano - Contextualização Histórica e Artística (A sociedade e Ideologia Fascista, Correntes artísticas marcantes, Contexto Italiano); Duas Gerações do Racionalismo Italiano (Diferentes discursos urbanísticos, A primeira geração, A politica fascista e o seu relacionamento com a arte, Geração de Cesare Cattaneo), Obra de Cesare Cattaneo (Projectada, construída, escrita).ABSTRACT - This dissertation aims to analyze the route of Cesare Cattaneo, architects belonging to the second generation of Italian rationalism. His work identifies the evolution of a work which, although small, due to his premature death, reveals the connection it establishes with other moments of artistic and architectural production of the twentieth century. The temporal context, which runs between the two World Wars, fits the foundation of a Fascist state in Italy, where the Rationalist architecture sought to be its representative on a mass communication that cuts across all social classes. For Cesare Cattaneo and the rationalists, the architecture is understood as a synthesis, which for the interests of the State amounted to a lack of iconography that is easily understood, because the choice was rather simple to recreate a classic style, from glimpse of a utopian and reactionary. The work is structured in three parts: The Modern Movement Italiano - Historical and Artistic Context (Society and Fascist Ideology, striking artistic currents, Context Italiano) Two Generations of Italian Rationalism (Different discourses urban, first generation, Fascist Politics and its relationship with art, generated Cesare Cattaneo), Work of Cesare Cattaneo (Designed, built, writing)