Italy

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 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.