Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who worked primarily under the fascist regime of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of

Rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...

. His most famous work is the Casa del Fascio built in

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, northern Italy, which was begun in 1932 and completed in 1936; it was built in accordance with the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

of architecture and frescoed by abstract artist Mario Radice. In 1938, at the behest of Mussolini's fascist government, Terragni designed the Danteum, an unbuilt monument to the Italian poet

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

structured around the formal divisions of his greatest work, the

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

Biography

Giuseppe Terragni was born to a prominent family in Meda,

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

.Hugo Lindgren
ARCHITECTURE; A Little Fascist Architecture Goes a Long Way
''The New York Times'', October 12, 2003, accessed May 10, 2018. He attended the Technical College in

then studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano university. In 1927 he and his brother Attilio opened an office in Como. They remained in practice until Giuseppe's death during the war years. A pioneer of the modern movement in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, Terragni produced some of its most significant buildings. A founding member of the fascist Gruppo 7 and a leading Italian Rationalist, Terragni fought to move architecture away from neo-classical and neo-baroque revivalism. In 1926 he and other progressive members of Gruppo 7 issued the manifesto that made them the leaders in the fight against revivalism. In a career that lasted only 13 years, Terragni created a small but remarkable group of designs; most of them were built in Como, which was one of the centers of the Modern Movement in Italy. These works form the nucleus of the language of Italian rationalist or modernistic architecture. Terragni was also one of the leaders of the artistic group called "astrattisti comaschi" with Mario Radice and Manlio Rho, one of the most important events in Italian Modern Art. He also contributed to the 1932 Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution. In his last designs, Terragni achieved a more distinctive Mediterranean character through the fusion of modern theory and tradition. His brother, Attilio, was the Fascist Podestà (mayor) of Como when the Casa del Fascio was commissioned, and his chief architectural patron was one of Mussolini's mistresses. His career was sidetracked by Italy's entry into World War II, where he was part of the Italian army sent to the Eastern Front. After the Italians collapsed near

Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...

, Terragni produced drawings of the suffering around him and suffered a nervous breakdown. Terragni returned to Como where he died of

thrombosis Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...

in 1943.

References

Bibliography

* Dennis Doordan (1988). ''Building Modern Italy''. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. * Peter Eisenman (2003). ''Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques''. New York: The Monacelli Press. * Muriel Emmanuel (1980). ''Contemporary Architects''. New York: St. Martin's Press. . NA680.C625 1980. * David Rifkind (2012). ''The Battle for Modernism: Quadrante and the Politicization of Architectural Discourse in Fascist Italy''. Vicenza and Venice: Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio and Marsilio Editori. * Thomas L. Schumacher (1991). ''Surface and Symbol: Giuseppe Terragni and the Architecture of Italian Rationalism''. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. * Thomas L. Schumacher (1996). ''The Danteum'', New York: Princeton Architectural Press. * Dennis Sharp (1991). ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture''. New York: Quatro Publishing. p. 152. . NA40.I45 1991. * Luigi Zuccoli (2015). ''Quindici anni di vita e di lavoro con l'amico e maestro architetto Giuseppe Terragni'' (2nd ed.). Melfi: Libria. .
Arch. Terragni Giuseppe
Fascismo - Architettura - Arte / Arte fascista web site (archived on October 2, 2023). 1904 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Italian architects Italian fascist architecture Italian fascists People from Meda Polytechnic University of Milan alumni Italian military personnel of World War II Deaths from thrombosis {{Italy-architect-stub

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography