Italian modern architecture and the vernacular tradition:  The aesthetics of morality.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Description: The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a new interest in Italian rural architecture, medieval hill towns, and artisanal arts and crafts. The dissertation contends that the appropriation of vernacular sources by Italian designers and intellectuals during this period points to an alternative genealogy for Italian modernism, one that challenges interpretations emphasizing classicism's predominant influence. The aim is not to characterize this new interest in regional vernacular traditions as opposition to the classical heritage, but rather to cast them as complementary "other" traditions within which it is possible to observe the full spectrum of ethical, political, and cultural agendas represented by Liberal, Fascist, and Republican movements.This striking process of appropriation was characterized by two very different approaches early on, which developed in parallel though not without mutual interference and influence. A nostalgia-driven, revival of "picturesque" rustic models competed with a disciplined study of the vernacular as a source for rational tectonic and design ideas. Protagonists of the former tendency simultaneously endorsed "architettura minore (minor architecture)," focusing on regional building types and emphasizing the quaint and picturesque. Protagonists of the latter identified with so-called "Razionalismo (Rationalism)" and looked to " architettura rurale (rural architecture)" for a deeper understanding of its "timeless" tectonic systems and building elements in order to promote an anti-rhetorical and rational approach to contemporary design.By translating anonymous architectural sources into signature styles, Italian architects transgressed the fundamental nature of the traditions they sought to appropriate, which had traditionally been propelled by the people for the "popolo" or common people. However, the turn toward rustic, rural, and hill-town vernacular forms whose dramatic expressivity and quotidian vitality challenged developments within a European modernism heavily influenced by classicism---but also in thrall to machine-age aesthetics and abstraction---allowed a uniquely Italian domestic design culture to emerge. In their search for sources that evoked the uncorrupted values embodied by the Italian peasantry, Italian modernist architects set the stage for the modernization of rural life and the ruralization of modern life, and in this process, a modern reformist project emerged that was at once nostalgic and utopian, anachronistic and subversive.
Notes: Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 1999.