Giuseppe Terragni in Rome

GIUSEPPE
TERRAGNI
in
ROME
CuraTORS
Architectural Composition:
Flavio Mangione (Cts Casa dell’Architettura)
Attilio Terragni
Flavio Mangione
Luca Ribichini
SCIENTIFIC CoordinaTION
Flavio Mangione
Luca Ribichini
Erilde Terenzoni
Attilio Terragni
CoordinaTOR
Flavio Mangione
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Cts Casa Dell’architettura
Maria Cristina Accame
Alfonso Giancotti (Presidente)
Massimo Locci
Flavio Mangione
Luca Montuori
Gioacchino Morsello
Cristiano Rosponi
Representation:
Marco Giovanni De Angelis
Luca Ribichini
Soryn Voicu
CuraTORS IN MIAMI
History of Architecture:
Carlo Fabrizio Carli
Antonella Greco
Jean-François Lejeune
Alessandro Masi
Gabriele Milelli
Alessandra Muntoni
David Rifkind
Nora Gharib
Owen Berry
Claudia Aguado
Nika Mirrafie
Structures:
Sergio Poretti
Jean-François Lejeune
Veruska Vasconez
ASSISTANTS IN MIAMI
Giuseppe Terragni (1904 – 1943) was an Italian architect
who worked under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini
and was one of the pioneers of the Italian modern movement or Italian Rationalism. His most famous works were
built in and around the city of Como in northern Italy, including the Casa del Fascio (1932 to 1936). The exhibition
Giuseppe Terragni in Rome now presented at The Meeting House is a critical reading of the ten works that he
designed for the city of Rome from 1932 to 1940. All unbuilt with the exception of the Sala O of the Mostra della
Rivoluzione Fascista of 1932, the Roman projects allow us
to effectively frame the complex figure of an architect who
joined the battle for the Italian architectural avant-garde,
while confronting the historic urban context and the demands of tradition.
It is Thomas Schumacher who, contrary to the formalist,
a-contextual and Como-based analysis of Peter Eisenman,
revealed to us Terragni’s links to typology and literature, to
modernity and tradition, to technology in service of tectonics and materiality—in brief, an enormously talented architect anchored in both classical and vernacular sides of
mediterraneità. Along with Diane Ghirardo, Richard Etlin,
Dennis Doordan and David Rifkind, we have learnt to understand an architect of the South who, like Le Corbusier
and José Luis Sert in the same years, rejected the analogy
with the machine and saw in the Mediterranean the true
roots of modernity. The lesson of Terragni in Rome is that
modernity and the city do not have to be antithetical, but
can be complimentary. His projects are not objects, but
genuine if truly audacious, urban pieces. The exhibition
also aims to highlight the importance of his many collaborators, particularly the artists Marcello Nizzoli, Mario
Radice and Mario Sironi, who played an important role
in the development of architectural projects, in particular
the monument/museum to Dante Alighieri, the Danteum,
perhaps the greatest example of architecture parlante.
In addition to the revealing beauty of the newly digital
images created by students and faculty at La Sapienza,
Roma—particularly those which show us the buildings integrated within the historic context like the Palazzo del
Littorio and the Danteum—the most striking and actual
lesson of Terragni’s work in Rome remains the extreme refinement and precision of the “traditional” 2-D drawings.
Plans, sections and elevations show us an astonishing maîtrise of geometry, tectonics, proportions, and systems. It
is time again to spend countless hours to discover them,
not to look at them but to “read” them, interpret and recreate them. Studying and sketching the plans of Terragni
is like studying and interpreting a musical score, from Alban Berg perhaps, and every time the performance will
be new, different, and open to a critical vision.
Jean-François Lejeune
Professor, University of Miami School of Architecture