Italy's fascist government built numerous new city quarters, and founded new towns and agricultural settlements; in the same years (late 1920s to early 1940s), it also sponsored substantial urban interventions in the Italian colonies. Overall, architectural and urban design played a central role in fostering the Italian government's legitimacy domestically, as well as prestige on the international stage. Plans for the principal colonial cities, from the eastern Mediterranean to East and North Africa, have been well studied; yet the realization of these plans on the ground, the local effects of these realizations, and how these colonial-era settings have fared since, have been sorely neglected. Similarly, numerous publications have examined the plans for città di fondazione and the smaller borghi on Italian soil - a total of 147 at most recent count - but next to none have studied the question of how plans translated to construction, how the social-engineering involved did or not take effect as the regime hoped, and, finally, how these settlements have fared since the end of the fascist era. This session aims to present case studies addressing such questions. In particular, because scholars have largely privileged the better-known 'new towns' so far, we invite studies of smaller borghi and more far-flung settlements. Furthermore, our purpose is to develop a comparative method for juxtaposing the study of fascist-originated settlements in the colony with those in the metropole. Because of their common design features - most notably, the central piazza surrounded by public buildings - we seek to understand their formal commonalities. Which are the architectural types and styles, urban elements, and housing typologies used in planning and building these new towns, villages and borghi both in Italy and in the colonies? Which elements, if any, were introduced from local planning, housing or architectural traditions? Is there a uniform planning formula that was developed and used for export to the colonies in the 1930s? If so, what were its unvarying components in formal, social and symbolic terms?
Urban design in the Thirties under Italian fascism. Comparative perspectives on urban forms and ideologies in Italy and the Colonies
H Porfyriou;
2010
Abstract
Italy's fascist government built numerous new city quarters, and founded new towns and agricultural settlements; in the same years (late 1920s to early 1940s), it also sponsored substantial urban interventions in the Italian colonies. Overall, architectural and urban design played a central role in fostering the Italian government's legitimacy domestically, as well as prestige on the international stage. Plans for the principal colonial cities, from the eastern Mediterranean to East and North Africa, have been well studied; yet the realization of these plans on the ground, the local effects of these realizations, and how these colonial-era settings have fared since, have been sorely neglected. Similarly, numerous publications have examined the plans for città di fondazione and the smaller borghi on Italian soil - a total of 147 at most recent count - but next to none have studied the question of how plans translated to construction, how the social-engineering involved did or not take effect as the regime hoped, and, finally, how these settlements have fared since the end of the fascist era. This session aims to present case studies addressing such questions. In particular, because scholars have largely privileged the better-known 'new towns' so far, we invite studies of smaller borghi and more far-flung settlements. Furthermore, our purpose is to develop a comparative method for juxtaposing the study of fascist-originated settlements in the colony with those in the metropole. Because of their common design features - most notably, the central piazza surrounded by public buildings - we seek to understand their formal commonalities. Which are the architectural types and styles, urban elements, and housing typologies used in planning and building these new towns, villages and borghi both in Italy and in the colonies? Which elements, if any, were introduced from local planning, housing or architectural traditions? Is there a uniform planning formula that was developed and used for export to the colonies in the 1930s? If so, what were its unvarying components in formal, social and symbolic terms?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
