r&ctrrarci Al-ian }itli-n

rrltalian i_sCr cover story

nu66i6rla.1
Proc,fessive Arcl."l t,:ettrre, pp. 85-94.
 Precursor

Italian Rationalism

Richard A. Etlin
Italian Rationalist
architecture of the 1920s
and l930sshouldnotbe
seen only as the abstract,
geometric vocabulary for
which it is most well known;
the paradox is thft it was
often intensely cdntextual.
:
2 textual" architecture. These buildings not
tloo ..\ 1 -2 Terragni, Noaocomum,
N Como,1927-29.
L}
IS
ts
1i
When the young members of the Gruppo 7
launched Italian Rationalisml in December
1926 with the first of a series of manifestoes,
they set the ground work for a double
paradox that has received little attention
from historians or critics. On the one hand,
the Rationalists were heady with the advent of
a "new archaic age" whose primitive values
were heralded by the modern machine civili-
zation. These Italians drew intellectual suste-
nance from Le Corbusier's Vers une Architec-
ture (1923) and design ideas from Walter
Gropius's Internationale Architektur (1925).2
Just how the Rationalists resolved the appar-
ent paradox of an avant-garde architecture
that seemed timeless as *ell has never been
properly explained.
When attempts have been made, writers
have fallen into the error of taking the archi-
tectural forms of Italian Rationalism at face
value, that is, as abstract geometries with their
own internal logic, sufficient unto themselves.
Thus, the prominent Italian historian and
theorist Manfredo Tafuri has characterized
the work of Giuseppi Temagni and Adalberto
Libera, along with the other Rationalists, as
"undoubtedly steeped in an atmosphere
poised between metaphysics and futurism."3
While Tafuri is correct in this assessment, he
mistakenly proceeds to the seemingly logical
conclusion that this architecture of abstrac-
tion is alien to the physical and historical set-
tings in which it has been placed: "The archi-
tecture enters the town as if 'entering a
foreign land'; and yet it does enter, at the cost of
expressing a sort of amazement at its own
presence."a Here, critics such as Tafuri ig-
nore the nonmetaphysical aspects of the
Gruppo 7's essays to their peril. Since the
Rationalists asserted that theirs would be a
traditional, Italian architecture, should one
not attempt to understand what they meant?
In effect, Italian Rationalism was, to a great
degree, rooted in a historical past. Fur-
thermore, many of its best realizations were
superb examples of what today is called "con-
only expressed their program as applied to a
particular town or city, but many.are also so
directly rooted to their site that their meaning
would be considerably emptied if they were
moved elsewhere. This, then, is the second
paradox of ltalian Rationalism, in which a
article will look briefly at seven of the most
important works by the three leading
Rationalists: Giuseppe Terragni, Adalberto
Libera, and Angiolo Mazzoni.
Novocomum, Como, 1927-1929, Giuseppe
Terragni with Attilio Terragni, engineer.
Terragni's apartment block, erected by the
development company Novocomum close to
the shore of Lake Como, was the first major
Rationalist building. Finished in 1929, the
building provoked a major scandal since it
departed radically from the drawing that had
been submitted to the Building Commission.
Instead of a nondescript Novecento apart-
ment block with Classical decorative detail-
ing,s Terragni erected a composition of clear
geometric forms in bright yellow and orange,
and with dramatic cantilevers engineered by
his brother Attilio. According to the Terragni
brothers, the building was conceived by anal-
ogy to the "Machine" both in its function
("each part serves a precise purpose") and its
aesthetics ("the calm rhythm of voids and sol-
ids";.0 Photographs in contemporary books
and newspapers showed to great advantage
the long expanses of glass that gave each
apartment a "wall of sky."z In particular, the
view of the projecting corner with its recessed
cylindrical shaft became the icon for the new
architecture. In his Beluedere dell' architettura
italiana d'oggi. (1933), written to acquaint
foreigners with the achievements of current
Italian architecture, Pier Maria Bardi pub-
lished a photomontage that juxtaposed the
Novocomum with the Duomo of Como (l).
As the accompanying text explained, the
Novocomum was ushering in a new era
worthy of that masterful fagade (begun 1452)
by the Maestri Comacini, with the dome
(1731-1734) by Filippo Juvarra.s
The Novocomum's message was also di-
rectly related to its particular siting. While the
balconies and the extensive glazing earned it
the originally pejorative epithet i.l transatlan-
tico, its overall massing corresponded to the
earlier residential building by Caranchini be-
hind it (2).e In effect, the Novocomum an-
swers its neighboring structure with a state-
ment about life in "the Machine Age." The
Terragni brothers could well have been re-
ferring to it when they wrote, "what is the pur-

1t
lb
pose of decorative and applied Baroque-like
building, whose pure geometric forms seem ornamentation if not to hinder the cleaning
}E
]s both timeless and universal, at the same time
creates a specific response to a particular
and preservation of our dwellings?"ro The
Novocomum responded with its clean lines de-

Ii
place. The examples are numerous, but this void of any "useless ornaments."ll
 Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of this
dialogue occurs at the corners. One can de-
bate terragni's originality vis-)-vis the pos-
sible influince of the glass cylinder at
I. Gosolov's Workers' Club in Moscow
(1928-1929).12 The true significance of
'Ter-
ragni's recessed and glazed cylinders,,how-
evIr, is that they mirror the flattened ma-
sonry cylinders that project from the-corners
of the adjacent building. One could hardly
imagine i*or. fitting response than-this re-
o..ril of materials, fbrms, and methods of
construction to signal a new age and a new
mode of living.
Post Office, Agrigento' 1931-1934, Angiolo
lrIez,zonti
Angiolo Mazzoni's first major building in a
Molern idiom, one termed "rationalist" by
the architect himself,ls was the palazeo postale,
or post office, in Agrigento (3, 4)' Under Mus-
;ffi. .the term" p'alazzo postale actually
reflected the physical and symbolic impor-
tance of the pbst office as a major factor in
the modernizition of Italy. Built lavishly with
Iarge budgets for fine stone or marble and
lusf, i.tte.i,or furnishings, and often situated
on the main piazza, the post office was the
secular church of the Fascist state'
As a functionary in the Ministry of Com-
munications , Mazzoni had to have his designs
approved by the strong-minded Minister Cos-
ta.rro Ciano. ln this case, Ciano dismissed the
project as "a'toilet' or a water closet for mod-
i.n barracks."la Only through the interven-
tion of Senator Roberto De Vita, Counselor to
the Post and Telegraph Administration, was
Mazzoniable to initiate construction in 1932'15
et the public presentation of the model to
the authoiities oiAgrigento on Oct' 23, 1931,
Mazzoni's design *on the approval of the
municipality and the local press as a success-
ful incarnation of modern values in harmony
with the antique purity of Agrigento's archi-
tectural heritige. If the Greek temples just
outside the citi seemed to incarnate a timeless
beauty, so too did the pure cylindrical form of
Mazzoni's modern structure, whose concrete
frame was faced in stone and in stucco' The
interior, with a circular ceiling that seemed to
float above the walls from which it was sepa-
rated by a continuous band of clerestory win-
dows, presented as bold and magical an opti-
cal effect as the harmony of a Greek temple
front.
Just as Mazzoni's resolutely
pure geo^metnc
cJmposition related to the history of Agri-
g".rto, it also responded to the specific con-
f,itiors of its site. Located at one corner of a
large amorphous open space at the heart of
tolin, the new post office pinned the corner
where several streets converged and gave
focus to the oversize d piazza. Situated below
an abrupt drop of the land, the building also
connected the upper and lower cities with a
staircase that gracifully winds up and around
the exterior' Finally, since the hill against
which it was built was composed of an unsta-
ble and crumbling stone, the cylindrical form
was chosen as statically best suited to resist the
push of the land.16 Like the Novocomum be-
iore it, the post office in Agrigento *1: 9t-
signed for the precise plot of land on which it
was to be built.
Elementary School, Trento, 1931-1933,
Adalberto Libera
In 1931, Adalberto Libera designed an
elementary school for the town of Trento,
where he himself had been educated until the
age of twelve. Mayor Scotoni envisaged,,the
niw building from an urbanistic as well as
pedagogical point of view: by replacing a
gtorrp of unsightly houses, the structure
iu""li also constitute a "harmonious" addi-
tion to thePiazza Raffaello Sanzio.17 Located
at the edge of the old town between the ele-
vated Castello Buon Consiglio, with its build-
ings ranging from the period of Augustus. to
th; 16th Century, and the equally venerable
Torre Verde, so named because of its steep
green glazed tile roof, the location for the
Ichool ioincided with the line of the old city
wall. Responding to these various site condi-
tions, Libera conceived his building as a "rec-
olleciion" of the city wall (5), a concept much 4
appreciated in Il Brennero, the regional news-
paper.18 34 Mazzoni, Post Office,
' fn. newspaper's story that accompanied Agrigento, 1931-34.
the publication of Libera's first design on Oct'
18, i93 1, is remarkable for its appreciation of
Libera's ability to reconcile tradition and
modernity as well as abstract forms and urban
context. Designed "with exquisite sense of art
in an unusuilly rich historical, artistic' and
Iandscape setting," Libera's horizontal new
city "will" .tot ottly joined the castle to-the
tower, but also perrriitted a view of the hills
beyond. Even ttie height of the front.faqade
was coordinated with that of the old city wall
to the east at the foot of the castle. In Libera's
design, the modern flat roof, de rigueur fot
Rati6nalist architecture, also served the
specific purpose of making the school an
*theof the city walls.le
analogue
At same time that the elementary
school harmonized with its urban and natural
setting, it spurned, as the report€r fot Il
Brenn"ero observed, the architectural styles of
the castle and of the neighboring l8th-
Century Palazzo Salvadori in favor of "a
fagade of an absolutely contempora-rl charac-
ter."'o The modernisiic aspect of this design
was progressively strengthened- in Libera's
l
...o.td u"ttd tt i.a projects (6, 7) where he
separated the centril classroom block, the en-
trinces, and the stair towers to fashion a
composition of pure geometric forms' Now
the building .tot only crystalli'ed the
Rationalists' [oal of establishing a dialog^ue of
simple prism"s that both expressed and facili-
tated the activities within, but also responded
more fully to the specific features of the site'
With the rounded stairwells at either side
of the classroom block, the building now
echoed the city wall to the east, which was also
flanked by rounded bastions' As one ap-
8
proaches the school' therb are places ruhere a
itairwell disappears while the rounded bas- 5-8 Libera,ElanenbryM,
tion takes its ptice (8). At such points, the new Trento,1931-33.
---=_= --- *--
 Precursor school seems paradoxically to be an integral throughout the day (11, and 12 with later al-
part of the old city wall. terations). The offices are signaled by their
On the other hand, the Torre Verde to the own type of fenestration, a series of square,
west stands independently of its neighboring punctured windows that the Romans dubbed
building (6) in a relationship that Libera re- a dovecote (13, back of building, and 10).26
peats with the tall stair towers and the lower Like the eastern stairwell of the elementary
classroom block. This analogous effect has school in Trento, the two stairways on the
been achieved by slightly recessing the en- south (front) faqade of the post office are
trances to impart a sense of an intervening boldly announced with diagonal glazing, here
'. .r:rr,,rr:r::ir::i:r;.:ill,r::::i::ir'r-. . -li$ffi space. Viewed from this direction, the Torre integrated with a crisscross pattern of solid
Greek temple at Paestum. Verde and the elementary school establish a panels and stringcourses. This dramatic ar-
different type ofrhythm across the site. (Even rangement not only coordinated the lighting
the centrally located circular ventilation stack with the movement of the steps, it also
along the'short wall of the school's courtyard, suggested the rapid transmittal of ideas
which pins the entire composition from through mail and telegraph that the postal
within, enters into a dialogue on one side with service was to provide.
the Torre Verde and on the other with the While the forms of Libera's post office can
circular tower'of the Castello, whose "nu- be explained according to both functional re-
cleus" dates from the Augustan era.)21 By quirements and the general ideological prem-
rooting his design in the imagery of the ises of Modern architecture as well as of the
town's towers, castle, and wall through the so-called Fascist Revolution, they also re-
use of such "volumetric sympathies,"22 Libera spond directly to two aspects of Rome's archi-
was able to establish a continuity with Tren- tectural and cultural heritage. The most evi-
to's past while asserting the arrival of a new dent, because directly perceivable, feature is
ciailtd,. the relationship between the pristine geomet-
rical blocks of the travertine-clad palazzo
Post Office, Rome, 1933, Adalberto Libera postale and the comparable purity of the
with Mario De Renzi. Italian Pavilion, neighboring marble-clad Pyramid of Cestius
ffi Chicago World's Fair, 1933, Adalberto Li- (c. 12 a.c.) Once again, Libera seems to have
bera with Mario De Renzi, in collaboration given a direct response to Le Corbusier's Vers
with Valente. une Architecture where, in the chapter entitled
The powerful abstract geometries of Libera's "Architecture, the Lesson of Rome," Le Cor-
final design for the elementary school in busier "reads" the ancient city as an encyclo-
Trento seemed to have been worked out in pedia of pure geometric prisms (la). This
conjunction with his design for a post office chapter on the fundamentals of architecture
in Rome at the foot of the Aventine Hill (10). opens with a photograph of the Pyramid of
In August 1933, Libera was one of four archi- Cestius taken from outside the Porta San
tects to win the competition to erect post of- Paolo ( l5) and is followed by views of the Col-
fices in four neighborhoods undergoing in- iseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the
tense urbanization at the periphery of Pantheon. Libera's post office could complete
Rome.23 Perhaps no building incarnated the the series by virtue of its form as well as its
dual notion of an archaic age and machine proximity to the neighboring pyramid.
civilization better than Libera's post office on Viewed from the post office, the pyramid is
the Aventine. Its pristine geometries with the framed by the vertical supports of the portico
t:: implied dynamism of its diagonally glazed (16). From the other direction and through a
stairwells seemed to harmonize with both the new breach in the Aurelian wall opened dur-
ill Parthenon (447 a.c.) and the Grand-Sport ing World War II, the triangular and cubic
iii
iill
(1921) automobile as found.iuxtaposed by Le blocks, resplendent under the Roman sun,
Corbusier inVers une Architecture.2a This pair- now face each other in silent discourse (17).
ing had particular relevance as well for Italy, The other tie to Roman history can be
for as a photograph of a modern car on a found in the similarities between T,ibera's post
recently completed autostrada passing in office and the Campidoglio as restructured in
front of the Greek temples at Paestum indi- the mid-l6th Century by Michelangelo. Like
cates (9), the new systems of communication the Campidoglio, the palnzzo postale orches-
t) were rapidly altering Italian society as well as trates a series of open and closed forms into a
l0-1) Libera and De Renzi, giving it physical access to its architectural processional sequence with analogous sym-
Post Offire, Rome, 1933. and cultural heritage.25 bolism. The first clue to what seems to be Li-
Functionally, Libera's design was a direct bera's intentional parallel to the Capitoline

Ba&me response to the physical setting. Facing due Hill is the post office's freestandingcordonata
south, the building is subjected to the intense (ramped stairs) (10) on axis with the main
rays of the Roman sun, literally from sunrise public hall which, in turn, is enclosed on three
to sunset. Here the public area, announced by sides by the taller building. In a sense, Libera
a sheer glass wall, is effectively protected by has turned several of the elements of the
OO
the deep exterior portico that precedes it. Campidoglio inside out and around. The oval
T.\
S
This portico also serves as a covered piana has become the luminous interior space
passageway for cars and small trucks to make of the main hall; the attached porticoes of the
I fast deliveries and for passersby to cut across Palazzo dei Conservatori and of the Palazzo
L a site whose sidewalk follows a wide and in- Nuovo have become one long, freestanding
convenient curve around the front of the portico in front of the post office. Both ele-
) property. The glazed clerestory on top of the ments, moreover, have been rotated 90 de-
G 14 Le Corbusier, drawing,from public hall is furnished with translucent grees from their position on the Capitoline
b
o Vers une Architecture, 1923. panes that assure diffuse natural illumination HiII.
qL
tt
 The parallel between the two buildings was
no mere formal play, but rather spoke di-
rectly to the contemporary vision of the Fas-
cist Revolution. The Campidoglio, as Acker-
man has explained, through the stellate
pattern of its pavement on the raised oval
mound of the piazza, symbolically identified
Rome as the Caput Mundi, or center of the
universe. In the middle of the oval is the
statue of Marcus Aurelius, considered the
successor to Apollo the Kosmokrator or ruler
of the universe. This statue replaced the "hal-
-lowed" figure of the Wolf suckled bY
Romulus and Remus, which had sat over the
entrance to the Palazzo dei Conservatori in
the 15th and early l6th Centuries'z7
At the post office, the architectural sym-
bolism evokes both traditions of the founding
of Rome and of its imperial glory. The pro-
cession begins with the cordonata that leads up
to the portico which, in turn, frames a view of
the Pyramid of Cestius. The procession then
culminates in the diaphanous oval central
hall.
The Pyramid of Cestius was not only a
symbol of Roman antiquity, but was known
even more specifically as the rneta ot Pyramid
of Remus. Romulus had his pyramid at the
other side of Rome between the Castel
Sant'Angelo and the Vatican Hill.28 As for the
central hall of the post office (11), this room,
along with the diagonal patterning on the
stairwells, corresponds in form and meaning
to the central pinzza of the Campidoglio. Li-
bera's post office, then, once again posited
Rome, now the Rome of Mussolini, as the
center of the universe thanks to its new sys-
tems of communications.
As original as this architectural solution
might be, the message itself was com-
monplace in Fascist thought. Especially since
the celebration in 1932 of the Tenth Anniver-
sary of the March on Rome, this theme had
become the leitmotif of Fascist rhetoric, re-
peatedly enunciated in speeches and por-
trayed in the visual arts. The post offices by
Angiolo Mazzoni in Gorizia and La Spezia,
for example, inaugurated in October 1932
and November 1933, respectively, featured
murals that celebrated this theme' At Gorizia,
Edoardo Del Neri's fresco evoked the breadth
of Italian communications and commercial
expansion with images of planes and boats
spreading out to Africa and America (18). In
la Spezia, the Futurists Enrico Prampolini
and Fillia (Luigi Colombo) covered the inte-
rior of the tall tower with ceramic mosaics
placed symbolically at the top of the stairs and
depicting Italian radio, telegraph, air' land,
and sea communications reaching out over
the world (19).'n
While Libera was designing his post office
for Rome, visitors to the Chicago World's Fair
of 1933, where the theme was "A Century of
Progress," were encountering the message of
the Campidoglio as reinterpreted by Fascist
society in the Italian pavilion that Libera had
just designed with his partner Mario De Renzi
and in collaboration with the architect Va-
lente (20, 2l). The Italian press quickly rec-
ognized the dynamic symbolism of this build-
ing that combined the imagery of the ship
and the plane along with a suggestion of the
Iocomotive.3o SituaGd on the shores bf Lake
Michigan, it seemed, in the eyes o{ contem-
poraries, ready "to take off into the sky"sr o.
about to sail out to sea. In this manner, the
Italian pavilion seemed to express the dy-
namism of "Italy on the move."32 15
The partial evocations of the ship, plane,
and locomotive were joined together by a co-
lossal fasces, explained in the Italian press in
terms reminiscent of the cultural and political
meaning of the Capitoline Hill: "a giantFascio
Littorio whose illuminated axe seems like the
tieacon lit by Fascism for the renewal of Italy
and the pacification of Europe."33 In the inte-
rior, this message was rendered more
explicitly through another giant fasce_s- with
the word DUX (leader, or duce) beside an
enormous portrait of Mussolini, the entire
image equivalent to the Capitoline statue of 17
Marcus Aurelius, and accompanied in large
15-17 Pyramid, of Cestiuslnl2 g,<.
Ietters by ROMA CAPUT MUNDI.34
The exhibition pavilion cast Italy not only
as the global center of modern communica-
tions in a general way, but also reflected the
particular accomplishments of Italian avi-
itors. In 193 I, General Balbo, with his squad-
ron of 12 seaplanes, made the first transatlan-
tic flight by Europeans using this new mode
of trinsport. The event was celebrated in
paintingi (22) and even promoted the first
ixhibiti,cn of Aereo-pittura, held in Rome.35
Now, two years later and in conjunction with
the World;s Fair, Balbo would repeat this feat
and then proceed to Chicago both to in- 18 De Neri, Post Officefresco,
augurate the Italian pavilion, whose forms
Gorizia, 1932.
echoed those of his seaplane, and to dedicate
a statue of Christopher Columbus, consid-
ered the "Italian" explorer who had discov-
ered America.36
Just as Balbo's 12 seaplanes constituted the
20th-Century equivalent to the 12 compart-
ments of the gridded pavement of the Cam-
pidoglio, whic'h represented the 12 signs of
ih. iodiu. "used to suggest the Dome of
Heaven,"37 so too did Libera's post office on
the Aventine translate the symbolism of the
Capitoline Hill into a celebration of Italy's
and, Fillia,
new and rapid means of transport and com- 19 PramPolini
mosaic, La SPezia, 193 j.
munication. To borrow the terminology from
a review of the first exhibit of Aereo-pithna,
the upward movement of the diagonal grid-
ding reflected the "vibrant," "pulsing"
dynamism, the slancio or rush of the plane,
while the luminous central hall captured the 20-21 Libera, De Renzi and
sense of "the ecstasy of a flight that could be V alente, Italian P aailion,
compared with the ecstasy of a prayer, a fu- Chicago W orld's Fair, I 9 3 3.
sion with the infinite."as No less than Aereo'
pittura, Libera's post office realized through
light and form what F.T' Marinetti, prime
mover of Futurism, had termed the "geome-
trization of the skies."3e
Post Office, Littoria (today, Latina), 1932'
Angiolo Mazzoni
Thi exhibition in the Italian pavilion at the
Chicago World's Fair celebrated the Fascist
victory over the land as well as its outreach to
world markets. The most dramatic ac-
complishment in the former era was the
draining of the Pontine Marshes, a task, in 22 Balla, Aereo-Pittura Paint'
the words of a contemporary headline, that ing, 1931.
 Pnecursor had been tried in vain for 2500 years.ao On
Dec. 18, 1932, one year after the work had
begun and only six months after the ground
breaking for the first new settlement, Musso-
lini inaugurated the town of Littoria.al To
Marinetti, who celebrated the "velocity, accel-
eration, warrior-like violence, absolute
heroism" of this work in an article entitled
"Ritmo eroico" (heroic rhythm), the highlight
of the ceremony occurred when Il Duce, ac-
companied by the Minister of Communica-
tions Ciano ("the genial governor of Italian
velocity") and Marinetti himself, sent the cus-
tomary first telegram to King Vittorio
Emanuele III from Mazzoni's new post office
(23,24).42 This was a building that seemed to
incarnate the "heroic rhythm" of the Fascist
movement in general, and of its particular
achievement on the Pontine Marshes.
The analogy between the cylindrical forms
of Mazzoni's post office and the North Amer-
ican grain silos (25), published in both Le
Corbusier's Vers une Architecture and Gropius's
is self-evident. At
Internationale Architektur,
Littoria, Mazzoni created an architectural
counterpart to these engineering structures
whose clean articulation and powerful mass-
24 ing of simple, repetitive volumes had sym-
bolized the spirit of a new machine age to the
2)-24 Mazzoni, Post Office,
pioneers of the Modern Movement. Now
Littmia,1932.
Mazzoni's contemporaries universally praised
his building for precisely this reason: ". . . but
I confess that this post office truly fascinated
me with the audacious harmony of its lines,
the balanced play of its masses, with its ample
windows and round walls where every practi-
cal detail necessary for the proper function-
ing of the building finds a decisive and coher-
ent form."aB
The analogy to the grain silos was not at all
gratuitous, for Mazzoni's building was also
25 Grain silo. destined for an agricultural region. The rural
character of the setting was further expressed
through the arched exterior stairs, reminis-
cent of entrances to traditional Italian farm
houses. Finally, Mazzoni's cylindrical forms
were also a practical response to the charac-
teristic hazard of the Pontine Marshes-
mosquitos. In effect, the giant cylindrical,
metallic grates of Mazzoni's building were
antimalarial screens that made an aesthetic
virtue out of a pressing necessity, what
Marinetti called an "example of utility which
has become beauty, trouata, lyricism; in other
words, a Futurist surpassing of simple
Rationalism."aa
Casa del Fascio, Como (f932-f936), Giu-
seppe Terragni.
The Fascist party headquarters for Como de-
signed by Giuseppe Terragni combines the
various types of meaning found in the previ-
ous buildings in a synthesis that makes it
worthy of its reputation, since the time of its
completion, as the supreme achievement of
Italian Rationalism. These categories might
27 be summarized as follows: 1 the combination
26-28 Terragni, Casa del Fas- of pure geometries and abstract forms seen as
cio, Como, 1932-35. universal or timeless as well as expressive of
the modern machine age; 2 the reference to
historic origins whether as indigenous or
high-style architecture, both with a political
message; 3 the response to site conditions that
epitomize the city in general and, in particu-
lar, are specific to the building's actual loca-
tion; 4 the reflection of contemporary Fascist
ideology according to the duality of the for-
ward looking motto, "Fascism on the move,"45
and of the nostalgic glance backward to the
myth of imperial Rome that this "thrust" to-
ward the future was seen as reenacting.
Italian Rationalist architecture, in general,
and the Casa del Fascio, in particular, had to
be defended by its champions against charges
that it was not Italian but rather an indis-
criminate copying of a Northern European
International architecture. Comparisons be-
tween the Casa del Fascio and the VESNA
School in Brno, Czechoslovakia, by Bohuslav
Fuchs with Joseph Pol63ek (1929-1930) and
the Altersheim in Kassel, Germany, by Otto
Haesler and Karl V<ilker (1930- 193 t)
brought double disgrace upon the Italian
building for its purported lack of originality
and its non-Italian character. Here one would
have to consider the degree to which Terra-
gni's Casa del Fascio combined features from
his earlier project for a gas works (1927) as
opposed to these two foreign buildings. In
any event, in the Casa del Fascio, Terragni
elaborated a complete, three-dimensional
spatial system of gridded forms, shifted rec-
tilinear geometries, and spatial and lumi-
nous transparencies that constitutes one ofthe
major achievements of 20th-Century archi-
tecture (26, 27, 28). As for the purported
non-Italian quality of the building, it is not
difficult to demonstrate that it was not only
thoroughly Italian, but was also intended
specifically for Como and for its particular
site.
Located behind the Duomo and just be-
yond the ancient Roman town, the Casa del
Fascio can be considered the ultimate Fascist
building. This judgment derives in part from
the abstraction of the gridded Roman settle-
ment presented on the principal fagade. To
Terragni, Como was a town that "until this
day has retained within the confines of its
walls the character of a Roman town."a6 What
better way, then, to characterize the Casa del
Fascio for Como than to present the image of
the city on the front fagade.
This visual figuration of the ancient Roman
town plan enabled Terragni to imbue the
Casa del Fascio with "the stately sense of the
universality of Fascism," the sense that "Fas-
cism dominates and carries the future of both
j
the nation and of humanity with it."a7 Like
Libera, Terragni combined the use of pure
geometric forms suggestive of universal and
enduring values with references to imperial
Rome to convey the customary Fascist
themes. For Terragni, the evocation of the
advancing Roman empire came through con-
ceiving the Casa del Fascio as "a kind of
provincial outpost ("una Casa Cantoniera") of
the new Roman Road."a8
The Casa del Fascio, as the modern-day
equivalent of the imperial Roman order, also
had to incarnate the Fascist motto, credere, ob-
bed,ire, combattere (to believe, obey, combat),
which figured in Terragni's description as
well as in his various decorative schemes for
the front fagade (29). Indeed, the uniforrn,
disciplined grid throughout the building con-
veys this sense as eloquently as the written
words. The severity of this architecture also
found a perfect analogue in the battery of 16
glass doors that would open simultaneously as
the Fascist cadres marched out of the central
atrium to join the assembled crowd in the
piazza. If Terragni had been successful in
realizing the final decorative program, the
faqade would have featured a complementary
photomontage of II Duce along with Fascists
either marching or saluting.ae
While the Casa del Fascio found its legiti-
macy in the image of the ancient Roman town
of Como, it also presented itself as the in-
heritor of a long tradition of Italian rural ar-
chitecture that is marked by an extensive front
loggia. In 1936, Giuseppe Pagano, editor of
Casabella, published a study tracing the evolu-
tion of this type of rural farm house for the
dual purpose of determining prototypical
characteristics worthy of incorporation in
new rural buildings, and of demonstrating
the presence in this indigenous architecture
of "the same moral attitude" as found in
Rationalist architecture; that is, of respond-
ing primarily to "the laws of utility, technics,
and economy, yet without actually renounc-
ing aesthetic aims."so While Pagano's book

29 Terragni, Casa d,el Fascio,
Como, decoratiae scheme, 1932.
30 ltalianfarmhouse.
-1,:$i
i:'r?f.._ : lrTlra;:lf
1l
i a
appeared at the time of the completion of the that he was rendering the essence of Fascism
Casa del Fascio, its principal usefulness is to in architectural form, it must also be recog-
remind us about a native building tradition nized that he was repeating a favorite revo-
that Terragni undoubtedly knew well (30). lutionary conceit of transparency, both physi-
According to Pagano, the Italian farm cal and moral, common to both the French
house with loggia, found throughout Italy and Russian revolutions.
but specifically in the region around Como, The central atrium that figured so promi-
underwent an evolution of form. The loggia nently in Terragni's design, while used in an
itself progressed from a simple wooden unprecedented manner, was actually a varia-
frame attached to the front of the house to a tion of similar covered courtyards in other
completely masonry structure integrated Fascist party headquarters. Paolo Mezzanotte,
within the plane of the southern front fagade. for example, had organized the Casa dei Fasci
In this state, the loggia protects the drying (1927) in Milan (31) around an atrium also
grain from the rain while the wall continues provided with a peripheral circulation gal-
the drying process at night by radiating heat lery, a feature that Terragni would also
absorbed during the day. If one adds to this employ. Since Terragni made extensive use
characterization the most advanced form of of glass block, considered a modern material'
roof (flat) and of volumetric configuration reference should also be made to the glass
(cubic), one has a complete precedent for block roof over the atrium in the Fascist
Terragni's Casa del Fascio as a thoroughly headquarters for the Milanese district "A.
"Mediterranean" and Italian building.5l Sciesa" (1930) by Paolo Vietti-Violi (32).
Since many architects and critics today con- These Fascist buildings were certainly not
sider the Casa del Fascio as an independent, the first to be organized around a centrally
abstract system of form, it is important to glazed atrium. In effect, the Casa del Fascio
keep in mind that this building's aesthetics ian be seen as the culmination of a half-
correspond perfectly to what Pagano termed century of Italian public and commercial ar-
the tendency in Italian rural architecture "to chitecture where the central court with a glass
limit artistic fantasy in favor of standardizing roof, used as the primary public space of the
as much as possible the elements of composi- building, both symbolized and realized an es-
tion (windows, pilasters, arcades) that yield a sentially modern interior' The first buildings
rhythmic cadence through the repetition of in Italy to develop this type were banks in
identical structural elements. . . . This sense major cities built at the turn of the century.
of continuous rhythm, so close to modern These were followed by central urban post
taste, has its highest expression in the rural offices, and finally by Fascist party headquar-
loggia."52 Not only the form, then, but also ters.
the aesthetics of Terragni's Casa del Fascio Finally, the gridded frame of the Casa del
a:j

derive from traditional rural architecture to Fascio in Como must be considered in rela-
3I Mezzanotte, Casa dei Fasci, which they seem to make explicit reference. tion to its specific site. Just as the mass of the
Milan, 1927. In fact, Pagano would later remark upon this building harmonizes with the older structures
similarity to express his disappointment at of similar height to either side, so too does the
Terragni's choice of so common a building loggia respond to the arched arcade and to
type as a model for a building in all other the colonnades opposite the north and south
respects so original.s3 apses of the Duomo. Facing the main apse,
Terragni, though, was not content with the Casa del Fascio forms a third screen wall
simply adopting the type of the farm house as to help give closure to the large, irregular
the way station for Fascism on the road from piazza that bleeds away in its direction (33).
Rome. He also imbued it with a modernity While Terragni envisaged replacing several
that corresponded to his own idealistic in- of the buildings around the p'inzza with other
terpretation of the Fascist cause. With its ex- civic structures, his proposed substitutes
tensive glazing and its rich marble cladding, would have strengthened the original effect
32 Vietti-Violi, glass blockroof, the Casa del Fascio became the highest form and, incidentally, would have retained the
Milan,1930. in the successive stages ofthe rural prototype, Neoclassical Teatro Sociale (181l-1813) by
now conceived as a physical realization of Giuseppe Cusi (whose portico is partially
3) Casa del Fascio (right). Mussolini's dictum that Fascism is a "house of shown in illustration 33).55
glass into which all can look."sa To Terragni, Perhaps the ultimate significance of the
the Casa del Fascio literally was to render vis- loggia of the Casa del Fascio is revealed on
ible to the masses the decision-making proc- sunny days, at a time when the front faqade is
esses of their leaders. In this manner, the thrown into shadow while only the more
modern methods of concrete construction deeply recessed loggia on the top floor re-
that permitted the abundant use of plate glass mains illuminated with sunlight (26). Then,
were employed to fashion a built statement one is reminded of the faqade of another
about the Fascist state. Even more, in this way building with an upper story loggia to the op-
the building was to become an instrument in posite side of the Duomo (34)' Just as Bardi
forging a new Fascist society. had once used the technique of photomon-
The most significant feature that made the tage to juxtapose the Novocomum with the
building a transparent "house of glass" was Duomo (1), now Terragni seemed to be
the sequence of 16 doors that placed only a suggesting a similar comparison between the
glass wall between the p'iazza and the interior Casa del Fascio and the Duomo. It is as if the
atrium. Certainly the suggestions of immedi- architect were asking the viewer to substitute
acy and simultaneity that this juxtaposition of his building for the analogous one that oc-
spaces conveyed distinguishes Terragni's cupies the prime position in Como opposite
34 Building opposite Duomo, building from the other Fascist party head- the fagade of the cathedral. Here, Terragni's
Como. quarters of his time. While Terragni believed message was analogous to Bardi's and yet also
 Precursor stamp "Ing. A Terragni, Arch. G. Terragni," the hand- Richard A. Etlinteaches archi-
writing of the manuscript copy was id.entified for the tectural history at the Uniaersity
author by Ingegnere Paolo Terragni as that ofhis father
Attilio. of Maryland School of Architec-
contained a political component as reflected 7
lbid., 13. ture. His Architecture of
in the contemporary theme of the great suc- 8 Pier Maria Bardi, Beluedue dell'architetuna italiana d'oggi Death: The Transformation
cessive Italian epochs: ancient Rome, the (Milan, l933.XII), tavola 4.
e This of the Cemetery in
Church, and the Fascist state. This message similarity was first pointed out by Thomas L.
Schumacher, 1l Danteu;rn di Tenagni, 1938 (Rome, 1980),
Ei ghteenth-Century P aris will
had been rendered symbolically, for example, 54 and fig. 26. be published by the MIT Press i,n
through statuary in front of Angiolo Maz- 10' rr Terragni,
"Relazione," l. December.
zoni's post offices in Agrigento (3) and Ber- t2 L'Architettura,
163 (May 1969), 13-16.
r3 "Il nuovo Palazzo delle Poste e Telegrafi di Agri-
gamo (1932).56 Now Terragni seemed to be Research for this article was under-
gento," Il Giornale d'Inlia, Oct. 24, l93l; "Il nuovo taken in 1980-1981 under the aus-
conveying the same lesson in an even more Palazzo delle Poste ad Agrigento," Giornale ili Sicilia, Oct. pices of a post-doctoral Fulbright
abstract way. 24,1931. Fellowship and of a fellowship at the
If one considers the Casa del Fascio as the 1{-ro
Angiolo Mazzoni, Manuscript notes, Gl, fol. 12 Bis. American Academy in Rome (NEH
symbol for Fascism inheriting the mantle of Mazzoni Archives.
(Il Comune per I'educazione delle nuove genera- Post-Doctoral Fellowship). I am
especially grateful to all three of
17-20
the Christian era, then one discovers the final
zione: Il palazzo scolastico di Piazza R. Sanzio," Il Bren- these programs as well as to Signore
significance of the loggia. While other archi- nero, Oct.18, 1931. Alberti at the library ofthe School of
tects had designed Fascist party headquarters 21' 22
Agnoldomenico Pica, Nuoaa architettura italiana (Mi- Architecture, University of Rome;
with a simple balcony from which the leaders lan, 1936-XIV),82-83. Cavaliere Enrico Moiola at the Maz-
would harangue the crowds, Terragni 2r IlMessaggero, Aug. I l, 1933. zoni Archives, Rovereto; Architetto
2a
employed a gridded and tiered loggia remi- See also the Gruppo 7's discussion of "pure rhythm" Emilio Terragni at the Terragni Ar-
and the Parthenon in "Architettura," (note 2). chives, Como; and Signora Stefania
niscent of the old benediction loggia of Saint Ministero Lavori Pubblici, Opere pubbli;lu. I (1922)-
25
Libera Boscaro and Architetto Paola
Peter's (c. 1461-1495) in Rome. Terragni X(1932) lRome, 1932], i-vii, 33ff. See also Tomaso Sil- Libera at the Libera Archives, Rome.
presented his modern rendition as the ap- loni, L'Etat mussolinien et les rbalisati.ons d,u fascisme en ltalie
propriate setting for the high priests of ltaly's ... (Paris, l93l). Photo credits
26 "Palazzi postali
a Roma," Case d;Oggi (une 1938), 19. l, Bar di, B elaed ere dell' arc hite ttura
new faith. 2TJames S. Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo
inliana d'o ggi ( 1933). 2,8, I 6, I 7,26,
(London 1970), 163-173. 28,33,34, Richard A. Etlin. 3,4,18,
Conclusion 28
Arnaldo Bruschi, Bramarte (London, 1977), 130. 19,23,24, Mazzoni Archives, Museo
2s Gorizia:IlPi,ccolo diTrizste, Oct.
With each of the preceding examples, one is 26, 1932.LaSpezia: La Depero, Roverto. 5,Il Brenruro (Oct.
Nazione, Nov. I l/12, 1933; Coni.ne dcl Tirenno, Nov. 13, 18, t93l); Libera Archives, Rome.
tempted to agree with Tafuri that Rationalist 1933. 6,7,20,21, Libera Archives, Rome.
architecture does "enter the town as if 'enter- 30
Alessandro Sardi, "L'Esposizione di Chicago . . .i' La I 0, 1 I , Pica, Nzo ua architettura itali-
ing a foreign land."'Terragni's Novocomum Tribuna, May 30, 1933. See also, Guido Bardi, "L'Italia ana (1936).9, Minestero Lavori
(l) and Libera's Chicago pavilion (20, 2l) sulle rive del lago Michigan . . .," Il Messaggero, June 23, Pubblici, Opere pubbliclu, I ( I 922)-X
1933. (1932). 12,13,27, D. Morton. 14,15,
seemed like giant machines only temporarily 31 "Il
Contributo italiano al progresso del mondo . . .," 1l 25, Le Corbusier,Vers une Architec-
poised upon the soil. Mazzoni's post offices in Ginrrnle d'Inlia, July 6, 1933. See also, A. Sardi, "L'Es- ture (1923). 22, Emporimn (April
Agrigento (3) and Latina (23,24) and Libera's posizione di Chicago e l'Italia . . .," LaTribuna, March 18, l93l). 29, Rassegna II (Sept. 1982).
I post office in Rome (9) have the presence of 1933. 30, Pagano and Daniel,Architettwa
temples quite sufficient in themselves. Li- 3'z
Sardi, "L'Esposizione," La Tribuna, May 30, 1933. rurale i.talinna (1936). 3 I, Empmium
bera's elementary school in Trento (5-8) and
33 "Il Contributo italiano." (Nov. I 927). 32, Calzini, P aolo
3a
It
lbid.; Bardi, "L'Italia." Vietti-Violi, (1932).
Terragni's Casa del Fascio in Como (26-28, 3s Marilena Rossati,
"La Prima mostra di Aereo-pittura,"
33) abolish temporal and spatial distinctions Emporium (April l93l), 249-250.
to join an old urban fabric while remaining as "Il Contributo italiano"; Sardi, "L'Esposizione,"
36
La
ti
fully independent entities. All of these build- Tribuna, May 30, 1933.
s7 Ackerman,
Mblulangelo, 170.
ings, moreover, either completely or virtually 38 Rossati,
"La Prima mostra," 249,251.
freestanding, have the quality of true archi- 3e
Quoted in Rossati, Ibid.,249-250.
tectural monuments. If there is a surrealistic ao
Gino Carocci, "L'Opera tentata invano per 25 secoli
aspect to these buildings, though, it resides as diviene realti per il tenace volere del Regirne," Gazetta del
Popolo, Dec.19, 1932.
much in their complex responses to discrete 41' e' 44
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, "Ritmo eroico," Gaz-
I urban conditions and political ends as to any Dec. 19, 1932.
zetta del Popolo,
abstract purpose. ai Beatrice Testa, "Visita a Littoria," Il Mattino llhstrato,
Feb.2, 1933.
I Gruppo 7: Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, a5
Sardi, "L'Esposizione," La Tribuna, May 30, 1933.
Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni, and a6 Giuseppe Terragni, "Como," Quatrfume Congrbs interna-
Ubaldo Castagnoli, replaced in 1927 by Adalberto Li- tional d'architechtre mademe. Rappmt des sbanres ilu lundi 3 t
bera. juilltt 1933. TM, 10. Terragni Archives.
I
2 "Architettura"; "Architettura
II: gli stranieri"; Ar- a7' a8
Giuseppe Terragni, four-page typed manuscript on
chitettura III: impreparazione, incomprensione, pre- the Casa del Fascio, Como. Temagni Archives.
giudizi"; "Architettura IV: una nuova epoca arcaica," La ae For Terragni's decorative program, see Diane
Rassegna ltaliana, Dec. 1926-May 1927. For English Ghirardo, "Politics of a Masterpiece: The Vicend,a of tbe
translations, see Oppositi.ons 6 (1976), 86-102; l2 (1978), Decoration of the Fagade of the Casa del Fascio, Como,
88-105. 1936-39," The Art Bulletin, 62 (Sept. 1980),466-478.
s Manfredo Tafuri, "The Subject
and the Mask: An In- 50 Giuseppe Pagano and Guarniero Daniel, Architettura
troduction to Terragni," Lotu Intentatianal, 20 (1978), rurale italiana (Milan 1936), 10.
17. See also, Peter D. Eisenman, "From Object to Rela- 51,52
lbid., 5g-76.
tionship: The Casa del Fascio by Terragni," Casabella, s3
Giuseppe Pagano, "Tre anni di architettura in Italia,"
I 344 llan. 1 970), 38-4 I and "From Object to Relationship Casabelh, ll0 (Feb. 1937),4.

li
II: Giuseppe Terragni," Perspecta, l3l14 (1971), 36-65.
4lbid.
5For an illustration, see L'Architettura: cronaclu e storia,
153 (July 1968), 154.
6Attilio and Giuseppe Terragni, "Relazione sul progetto
per la costruzione di un palazzo per Ia Societi Im-
mobiliare Novo Comum," TM,l. May 13, 1928-VI,
Como. Terragni Archives. While a typed copy carries the
5a Giuseppe
Terragni, "Marmi," TM, l. Terragni Ar-
chives; "La Costruzione della Casa del Fascio di Como,"
Quadrante, 35/36 (Oct. 1936) reprinted in Enrico Man-
tero, Gitueppe Tenagni e la cittit d^el razionalismo italiann
(Bari, 1969), 130. See also, "Casa del Fascio di Como,"
Case d'Oggi (June 1937), 8.
55 Daniele
Vitale, "Casa del Fascio di C omo," Rassegra, ll
(Sept. 1982), 28-29, 36, fig. 33.
56
Agrigento: See note 13. Bergamo: Umberto Ronchi,
"Una Visita alPalazzo delle Poste a Telegrafi,"ZaVoce d,i
Bergamo, Oct. 27, 1932.

Ii