Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy 9781442698468

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PRIDE IN MODESTY Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy

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MICHELANGELO SABATINO

PRIDE IN MODESTY Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2010

Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in Canada ISBN 978-0-8020-9705-7

Printed on acid-free paper with vegetable-based inks. Toronto Italian Studies

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Sabatino, Michelangelo, 1969– Pride in modesty : modernist architecture and the vernacular tradition in Italy / Michelangelo Sabatino. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8020-9705-7 1. Vernacular architecture – Italy – Influence. History – 20th century. I. Title. NA1118.S22 2010

720.945′0904

2. Architecture – Italy –

C2009-907107-X

This book has been published with assistance from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the New Faculty Research Program of the University of Houston. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

Contents

List of Figures

vii

Foreword: The Extraordinary Role of Ordinary Things kurt w. forster Ringraziamenti/Acknowledgments Introduction

xiii

xxiii

3

1 In Search of Italianità: Ethnography and National Identity 2 The Picturesque Revival: Rusticity and Contextualism

25

57

3 Tabula rasa and Tradition: Futurism and Rationalism between Primitivism and Mediterraneità 92 4 Engineering versus Architecture: The Vernacular between New Objectivity and Lyricism 128 5 Continuity and Reality: The Vernacular Resumed in Postwar Architecture and Urbanism 165 Epilogue Notes

196

211

Selected Bibliography 281 Index

319

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Figures

Fig. F.1 Fig. F.2 Fig. F.3 Fig. F.4 Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2 Fig. 1.3

Fig. 1.4 Fig. 1.5

Fig. 1.6 Fig. 1.7 Fig. 1.8

Illustration by Gottfried Semper, Caribbean hut in the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, 1863 xiv Johannes Rabe, view from the east of the Gardener’s House (1829–40), Gardens of Sanssouci, Potsdam, 1847 xvi Photograph by Michelangelo Sabatino, Gottfried Semper’s Villa Garbald, Castasegna, Switzerland, 1864 xix Photograph by Ugo Pellis, built-in stove, Usellus, Sardinia, 1934 xxi Poster design by Galileo Chini, Roma – 1911 – Esposizione Etnografica (Exhibition of Ethnography) 26 Plan of Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, Rome, 1911 (from Donghi, 1925) 30 Postcard, view of Casa colonica (Lucca, Tuscany), Exhibition of Italian Ethnography, Augusto Giustini and Angelo Guazzaroni, Rome, 1911 31 Plan of Mostra di Etnografia Italiana e Mostre Regionali (Ethnographic and Regional Exhibitions), 1911 33 View (photographer unknown) of Trulli of Alberobello, Exhibition of Ethnography, Augusto Giustini and Angelo Guazzaroni, Rome, 1911 34 Illustration, Capanne romane bislunghe (oblong Roman huts) (from Garnier and Ammann, 1893) 39 Catalogue cover page, Giuseppe Pitre, Catalogo illustrato della Mostra di Etnografica Siciliana, 1892 41 Drawing by Gennaro Amato, View of the Eritrean Exhibition, Palermo, 1892 42

viii Figures

Fig. 1.9 Fig. 1.10 Fig. 1.11

Fig. 1.12 Fig. 1.13

Fig. 1.14 Fig. 1.15 Fig. 1.16

Fig. 2.1

Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 Fig. 2.5 Fig. 2.6 Fig. 2.7 Fig. 2.8 Fig. 2.9 Fig. 2.10

Photograph by Ins. Ital. Grafiche, Bergamo, of a peasant’s bedroom in Sarre, Piedmont, 1913 44 Drawing by Ettore Ximenes, view of the Italian Alpine Club pavilion, Turin, 1884 46 Diulio Cambellotti, ink drawing, axonometric, The Main Hut of the Roman Agro, Exhibition of the Roman Agro, Rome, 1911 47 Chest manufactured by Agro peasants (photographer and author unknown), Exhibition of the Roman Agro, 1911 48 Agro school designed by Duilio Cambellotti with Giovanni Cena and Alessandro Marcucci (photographer unknown), Rome, 1921 50 Painting by Giacomo Balla, Contadina davanti a due capanne (Peasant Woman in Front of Two Reed Huts), 1910 51 Painting by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo II, Quarto Stato (Fourth Estate), Milan, 1901 53 Frontispiece by Adolfo De Carolis, La figlia di Iorio: tragedia pastorale (The Daughter of Jorio: A Pastoral Tragedy), by Gabriele D’Annunzio, 1904 (Milan: Tip. Treves, 1927) 55 View of Mostra di arte rustica (Exhibition of Rustic Art), Palazzo delle esposizioni, Rome, 1921 (photographer unknown) 58 Drawing by Duilio Cambellotti of a reed hut (from Metalli, 1924) 60 Drawing by Giulio Ferrari, view of Casa rustica in Via di Porta Latina in Rome (from Ferrari, 1925) 62 View of Marcello Piacentini’s Villa Nobili, Rome, 1916–18 (photographer unknown) 64 Photograph by David Gebhard of Smith House #1 by George Washington Smith, Montecito, California, 1916 67 Cover page, Guy Lowell, Smaller Italian Villas and Farmhouses (New York, 1916) 69 Photograph of external view and floorplan of housing type “I,” Garbatella, Rome, 1920–3 (photographer unknown) 71 Photograph of Italian Exhibition of Decorative and Peasant Art, Stockholm, 1921 (photographer unknown) 74 Cover page, Eleonora Gallo, Peasant Art in Italy (1929) 76 Elevation drawing, Ernest(o) Wille, Villino Wille, Via Andrea Cesalpino, Rome, 1906-8 (from Babini, 1915) 79

Figures

ix

Fig. 2.11 Photograph by Piero Jahier of an Alpine milking stool, Valle Varaita (from Arte Alpina, 1961) 81 Fig. 2.12 Logo by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Bottega d’arte popolare italiana, 1920 83 Fig. 2.13 Elevation drawing of double farm buildings in Sardinia, by Giulio Ulisse Arata (from Arte Sarda, 1936) 85 Fig. 2.14 Photograph of a Sardinian exhibition curated by Giulio Ulisse Arata with Melkiorre Melis (photographer unknown), Bienniale exhibition, Monza, 1923 88 Fig. 2.15 Drawing by Paolo Mezzanotte of a peasant house and hearth at Villa Vicentina (from Mezzanotte, 1917) 90 Fig. 3.1 First page of Sigfried Giedion, “Situation de l’architecture contemporaine en Italie” (from Cahiers d’art, 1931) 95 Fig. 3.2 Painting by Carlo Carrà, La Crevola, 1924 101 Fig. 3.3 Cover page, Edwin Cerio, La casa nel paesaggio di Capri, 1922 104 Fig. 3.4 Drawing by Edwin Cerio, Il “Rosaio,” Capri, 1920–1 106 Fig. 3.5 Photograph by Petra Liebl-Osborne of Casa Malaparte, Punta Masullo, Capri, 1938–42 107 Fig. 3.6 Cover page, Virgilio Marchi, Architettura futurista, 1924 110 Fig. 3.7 Painting by Fortunato Depero, Paese di Tarantelle, 1918 111 Fig. 3.8 Photograph by Giuseppe Capitò, Sicilian horse-drawn cart, 1923 113 Fig. 3.9 Enrico Prampolini, Futurist Pavilion, Turin, 1927 (photographer unknown) 115 Fig. 3.10 André Lurçat, Hotel Nord-Sud, Calvi, Corsica, 1931 116 Fig. 3.11 Article by Josep Lluís Sert, “San Pol de Mar,” AC–Revista Tremistral, 1931 118 Fig. 3.12 Period photograph of Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini, Plan for “Villa-studio per un artista” (Villa studio for an artist), Milan, 1933 121 Fig. 3.13 Drawing by Gio Ponti and Bernard Rudofsky, “Room of the Doves,” Hotel San Michele, Capri, 1938 123 Fig. 3.14 View of Giuseppe Vaccaro, Agip Recreation Colony, Cesenatico, 1938 127 Fig. 4.1 Cover page, Agro Pontino (showing Benito Mussolini), 1938 129 Fig. 4.2 View of Giuseppe Pagano and Werner Daniel’s Exhibition of Italian Rural Architecture VI, Milan Triennale, 1936 132

x

Figures

Fig. 4.3

Fig. 4.4 Fig. 4.5

Fig. 4.6 Fig. 4.7 Fig. 4.8 Fig. 4.9 Fig. 4.10 Fig. 4.11 Fig. 4.12 Fig. 4.13 Fig. 4.14 Fig. 4.15 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Fig. 5.4 Fig. 5.5 Fig. 5.6 Fig. 5.7

Two-page spread of the catalogue for the Exhibition of Italian Rural Architecture, by Giuseppe Pagano and Werner Daniel, 1936 133 Photograph by Giuseppe Pagano, vessels (Litoceramica 26:1), date unknown 136 Drawing by Ottone Rosai, Casa colonica in Laterina (Arezzo) in Mario Tinti, L’architettura delle case coloniche in Toscana, 1935 139 Photograph of Mario Asnago and Claudio Vender, Tenuta Castello Housing Estate, Pavia, 1937 141 Architect layout, Giovanni Michelucci, “Fonti della Moderna Architettura Italiana” (Domus, 1932) 144 Giuseppe Pagano and Gino Levi-Montalcini’s Colli “Cottage,” Rivara, Turin, 1929–31 145 Drawing by Camillo Jona (”Fienile”) of grain storage with “mushroom” piers at Castelli, 1920 146 Drawing by Ettore Sottsass, Villino, Turin, 1936–7 150 Drawing by Enrico Griffini, Casone, 1922 151 View of Luigi Cosenza and Bernard Rudofsky’s Villa Oro, Naples, 1934–7 (photographer unknown) 159 Photograph by Ancillotti of Ignazio Gardella’s chapel and altar, Varinella, 1936 160 Photograph by G.E. Kidder Smith of Ignazio Gardella’s Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Alessandria, 1938 161 Giuseppe Pagano’s Weekend House, Viggiù, Milan, 1942 163 Photograph by Gabrielle Basilico, Ignazio Gardella, Casa del Viticultore (House of a Vintner), Pavia, 1944–7 167 Drawing by Mario Ridolfi, Tiburtino, INA-Casa row houses with external corridor, Rome, 1950–4 171 Giancarlo De Carlo et al.’s Exhibition of Spontaneous Architecture IX, Milan Triennale, 1951 173 Drawing by Egle Renata Trincanato of the row houses in Calle dei Preti, Venice (from Venezia minore, 1948) 175 Giancarlo De Carlo’s master plan of the University of Urbino Colleges, 1965–87 179 Cover page, Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli, English translation (New York, 1947) 182 Drawing by Ludovico Quaroni et al., plan for the “Villaggio” of La Martella, Matera, 1951 183

Figures

Fig. 5.8 Fig. 5.9 Fig. 5.10 Fig. 5.11

Fig. 5.12 Fig. 5.13 Fig. 5.14 Fig. 5.15 Fig. E.1

Fig. E.2 Fig. E.3 Fig. E.4 Fig. E.5 Fig. E.6 Fig. E.7 Fig. E.8

xi

View of Ludovico Quaroni et al., residential units, the “Villaggio” of La Martella, 1951 185 Photograph of Paolo Soleri’s community of Arco-Santi, Arizona, 1970– 186 Photograph of Giovanni Michelucci’s Casa Pitigliani and extant casone, Rome, 1957 188 Drawing by Serge Ambrose of Giovanni Michelucci’s Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Gerlamo (Church of Saints Peter and Jerome), Pistoia, 1946–53 189 Photograph of Carlo Mollino’s Stazione albergo al Lago Nero, Sauze d’Oulx, 1946–7 (photographer unknown) 190 Photograph of Franco Albini’s Pirovano Youth Hostel, Cervinia, 1949–51 (photographer unknown) 191 Design by Gio Ponti, Superleggera (699), Cassina, Milan, 1957 192 Drawing by Aldo Rossi, Villa and Pavilion in the Wood (unbuilt), Borgo Ticino, 1973 194 Photograph of the Italian pavilion, designed by Ignazio Gardella, Studio Architetti BBPR, Adolfo De Carlo, Giuseppe Perugini, and Ludovico Quaroni, Brussels, 1958 (photographer unknown) 199 Plan by Eero Saarinen, Ezra Stiles and Samuel Morse Colleges, Yale University, New Haven, 1958–62 200 Photograph of Charles Moore’s Kresge College, Santa Cruz, California, 1964–74 (MLTW) (photographer unknown) 202 Cover page, Ivor De Wolfe (Hubert de Cronin Hastings), The Italian Townscape, 1963 203 Photograph by Myron Goldfinger, view of the steps of a trullo in Alberobello, Apulia, 1969 204 Drawing by Louis I. Kahn, view of Town, n. 2, Positano, 1929 205 Drawing by Aldo Rossi, proposal for University of Miami School of Architecture, 1986 207 Giorgio Morandi, Natura morta, 1956 209

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Foreword The Extraordinary Role of Ordinary Things kurt w. f o r s t e r

One of the world’s truly astounding modern buildings opened as the Crystal Palace on the occasion of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Colossal in every way, but delicate and almost evanescent in its effects, its canopy melted into the cloudy sky, the way Camille Pissarro later painted it, while shrouding mature trees, fountains and enormous orchestras under its gossamer web of glass. While blending into the weather, it also created its own climate and atmosphere. Where modern nations proffered their products to a new kind of public that shared metropolitan anonymity and ancient curiosity, who would have expected anything old, not to say primitive, within the sparkling shell of the palace? Whether he expected it or not, the German architect Gottfried Semper (1803–79), living impecuniously in his London exile, discovered a Caribbean hut that left him dumbfounded (Fig. F.1). Its simple platform and thatched roof required only a few bamboo poles and woven mats to partition its space.1 Architectural theorists from Vitruvius to Abbé Laugier had long speculated about the very earliest manifestations of architectural ideas. They sought to locate them on the threshold between nature and the first social groups banding together in a dark and distant past. Cutting and tying branches to cover a patch of ground for comfort and safety was thought to have inaugurated an evolution leading ultimately to the Parthenon and on to Gothic cathedrals. Gottfried Semper, on the other hand, was less enthralled by such fables than by a true phenomenology of architecture. That is to say, he sought in the very nature of building the conditions for useful speculation about it. Eking out a living in London, he added to his meagre earnings by designing displays for nations

xiv

Foreword

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