page_title: Luigi Moretti
section_title: Activity in building and urban development
hierarchical_section_title: Luigi Moretti / Career / Activity in building and urban development
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Haus der Faschistischen Jugend in RomItaliano: Roma, ex sede della G.I.L. (Gioventù Italiana del Littorio) a via Induno (arch. Luigi Moretti)
context_page_description: Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.
context_section_description: In 1932, Moretti entered in competitions for the town planning of Verona, Perugia, and Faenza, for which he obtained the second place. He also entered in a competition for a council house complex in Naples.
  The next year, after ending the university career, with Giulio Pediconi, Mario Paniconi e Mario Tufaroli, attended at the fifth Triennale di Milano with a project for a country house designed for a scholar. In this year he also met Renato Ricci, at that time president of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), that, the following year, appointed Moretti ONB technical director, succeeding to Enrico Del Debbio.
  In this role Moretti designed some of the youth centres of ONB and Gioventù Italiana del Littorio: in 1933 in Piacenza and in Rome, Trastevere, in 1934 in Trecate, in 1935 a women centre in Piacenza and in 1937 another youth centre in Urbino. His work was also part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
  In 1937 he took over, the design of the regulatory plan of the Foro Mussolini (renamed Foro Italico after the war), where he created some of his masterpieces, such as the Academy of fencing and the Duce's Gym (both 1936) and the commemoration cell (of 1940).
  His are also the major planner of the Forum, enriched in the 1937 with the square of the Empire and the Stadium of Cypresses (expanded in 1953 and 1990 of other architects to become the Stadio Olimpico).
  Moretti's works were published in the journal Architecture.
  In those years he participated in the competition for the construction of the Palazzo Littorio (Casa del Fascio), a project harshly criticized by the magazine Casabella and progressive Italian architectural culture in general.
  In 1938 he participated in the design of the E42 (Esposizione 1942) later changed to EUR (Esposizione Universale Romana) standing for Rome World's fair. Moretti(with Fariello, Muratori and Quaroni) won the competition for the design of the Imperial Square (now Piazza Guglielmo Marconi). The large building fronting the square was never finished, but after the war the structures already constructed were used for the "Skyscraper Italy (Grattacielo Italia)" by Luigi Mattioni.
  He served in that period, in private practice, thanks mainly to his friendships with members of the Fascism and journalists.
  In the period between 1942 and 1945 Moretti disappeared from public view, to reappear in 1945, when arrested for his collaboration with fascism, was briefly imprisoned in the prison of San Victor, where he met count Adolfo Fossataro. After release, with him in November of the same year, founded Cofimprese company.
caption: Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL, fascist youth organization) building in Trastevere, Rome, one of the firsts Moretti's notable works
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