Frank L. Wright: the house on the waterfall (1935), the Prairie Houses (Houses of the Prairie), almost all of us have seen some photographs of the works of the great master of XNUMXth century architecture. However, the great trend ofarchitecture contemporary Italian rationalist to Wright himself.
The intuitions
Antonio Sant'Elia was a young futurist architect, who died during the 1915-18 war, whose futuristic vision of urban planning stimulated a renewal of the construction concept as there will be more in Italy. Sant'Elia left only projects, Joseph Terragni (1904/1943) built only one: the monument to the Fallen of Como (1931). His intuitions, however, leave us astonished: at the Triennale di Monza the project for the Electric House is presented, an anticipation of home automation, it was 1930!
Rationalism in Architecture begins to be a topic of discussion in 1926. Starting from that year we want to bring a new spirit and a new order of ideas: the architects Terragni, Figini and Pollini were the forerunners. In 1928, at the end of the I ^ National Congress of Architects' Unions the Italian Movement for Rational Architecture (MIAR) is established, Adalberto Libera and Gaetano Minnucci are among the founders. The aforementioned Terragni in 1929 with the residential building called “Novocomum” imposes a totally innovative constructive criterion in his city, Como precisely. At first the building risks being demolished due to the shocking novelty of the project before being recognized as a prestigious building considered a milestone of the new urban planning.
The achievements
The new spirit of the times is absorbed by the best professionals of the time, design studios such as BBPR (Banfi, Barbiano, Perassutti, Rogers) are founded. At the V Triennale di Milano (1933) the studio presented three projects that can be considered the Italian Prairie Houses: the Lake house by artist, Home studio for an artist, Saturday house for the newlyweds. The Roman Urban Planners Group (Cancellotti, Montuori, Piccinato, Scalpelli) designs and supervises the construction of the city of Sabaudia (1934). The young architect Terragni in 1936 completed the construction of the current Provincial Command of the GdF (then Casa del Fascio) which remains one of the purest examples of 'rationalist architecture'. Such a concentration of minds dedicated to design produced in those years a considerable amount of public and private buildings that fit into the great tradition of Italian architecture of excellence. All this until the 1940-45 War when everything fell into the cauldron of the war destruction.
In Rome, the University City and the EUR, Piazza della Vittoria Brescia, the Florence station. Even small villages retain the vestiges of a fruitful period of ideas and achievements: such as Tresigallo (FE) still recognized today as a 'City of Art' for the rationalist treasures it preserves.
