Piero Portaluppi (1888–1967): The Architect of Milanese Discretion
If Milanese elegance between the wars has one author, it is Piero Portaluppi. He built power stations in the Alps, […]
interwar
Marcello Piacentini (1881–1960): The State Architect of Interwar Italy
No architect left a deeper mark on the public face of interwar Italy than Marcello Piacentini. A university city, a
Arturo Martini (1889–1947): The Sculptor Who Called His Art a Dead Language
Arturo Martini spent his life trying to make sculpture modern and ended it declaring the art dead. In between he
Giuseppe Terragni (1904–1943): The Architect Who Defined Italian Rationalism
Giuseppe Terragni died at thirty-nine, and in barely fifteen working years he became the defining figure of Italian Rationalism. He
Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863–1938): A Life from Pescara to the Vittoriale
Few Italian lives of the last century left as many marks on the map as Gabriele d’Annunzio’s. Poet, novelist, playwright,
A Stadium, an Aqueduct and a New Town: A Ferrara Rationalism RoadBook (1928–1939)
Ferrara modernised on its own terms between the wars. Alongside the old city, a new westward quarter — the Addizione
Blue Riband and White Sails: the Rex, the Amerigo Vespucci and Italy’s Interwar Sea
Italy’s interwar sea produced the fastest liner in the world — the Rex, Blue Riband 1933, sunk 1944 — and a deliberately archaic sailing ship, the Amerigo Vespucci of 1931, still in service today.
The Atlantic Squadrons: Orbetello, Rio, Chicago and the Formation Flights of 1930–1933
Twice in three years, formations of S.55 flying boats left the Orbetello lagoon to cross an ocean: Rio in 1931, Chicago and back in 1933. A memorial park in Tuscany and a contested Roman column on the Chicago lakefront still mark the route.
One Building Type, Five Fates: The Case del Fascio from Como to Tirana
The casa del fascio was the local headquarters of the Fascist party, and after 1945 the whole network lost its purpose overnight. Five survivors — Como, Rubano, Predappio, Bolzano, Tirana — show what the type was and what the republic did with it.