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Italy: Modern Architectures in History
Author(s): Diane Yvonne Ghirardo (Author)
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 2011
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 1861898649
- ISBN-13: 9781861898647
Book Description
Throughout the twentieth century, architects in Italy have attempted to define the role of architecture under diverse political systems, from the monarchy of the first seventy years since Italian unification, to the 21 years of Fascist control, to the post-Second World War parliamentary republic. At the same time, Italy holds some of the most prized architecture and art in the world, from antiquity to the baroque, packed into its dense historic city centres, which planners and politicians have negotiated as they struggled to cope with massive migration from the countryside to the city. Diane Ghirardo addresses these and other issues by considering modern architectural production in Italy from the late nineteenth century to the present day within a clear presentation of the larger historical, social and political contexts. From the post-unification efforts to identify a distinctly Italian architectural language to the transformation of the urban environment in Italian cities undergoing industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Diane Ghirardo challenges received interpretations of modern architecture, as well as focusing on the subject of illegal building and responses to current ecological challenges. With up-to-date examples, both from the work of widely published architects in the largest cities and from throughout the peninsula, including small towns and rural areas, Italy: Modern Architectures in History provides a comprehensive view of the country’s modern built environment. A fascinating insight into the development of modern architecture with nuanced arguments about architecture and building practices, this book offers a new way of understanding the history of modern Italy and is essential reading for all those who want to learn more about Italian modern architecture.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This excellent history of architecture in Italy from unification to the present takes us on a fascinating journey through space and time, in which the built environment and man’s traces on the Italian peninsula reveal the country’s history, culture and life.”– “Francesco da Mosto, architect, historian, and television presenter”
“This is an important book, which analyses modern Italian architecture in its social, economic and cultural context. Ghirardo’s original and thought-provoking volume provides the reader with a wealth of information from housing and civic architecture to unauthorised building and the construction industry’s impact on the environment. Highly recommended.”– “John Foot, author of Milan Since the Miracle”
About the Author
Diane Yvonne Ghirardo is Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. She has published widely on Italian architecture.
