Gruppo 7
Gruppo 7 (“gruppo sette”) was an Italian group of architects who, from 1926 onwards, gave decisive impetus to the development of modern architecture in Italy.
The Gruppo 7 , 1926–1928
In 1926, seven young architects came together under the name Gruppo 7, all of whom had studied at the Milan Polytechnic in the 1920s and were close to fascism. The founding members of Gruppo 7 were Ubaldo Castagnoli, Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava and Giuseppe Terragni . After a few months, Castagnoli left the group and Adalberto Libera moved up.
In the period between December 1926 and May 1927, Gruppo 7 published its manifesto of Italian rationalism in the magazine La Rassegna Italiana . In the four articles “Architettura” (Architecture, December 1926), “Gli Stranieri” (The Foreigners, February 1927), “Impreparazione, incomprensione, pregiudizi” (Lack of preparation, incomprehension, prejudice. March 1927) and “Una nuova epoca arcaica “(A New Epoch of Classics, May 1927) the group laid out the theoretical foundations of their understanding of architecture.
The reference points for this architectural language, which was new in Italy, were classical antiquity with its clear geometric figure formations, the Renaissance and European modernism, here in particular the architect Le Corbusier . Despite the orientation towards international modernity , the Gruppo 7 proclaimed a national architectural language in the sense of the concepts romanità and mediterraneità, central to the propaganda of the fascist party , which, with their recourse to the Roman Empire, belonged to the legitimation figures of the regime.
With this architecture, known as Architettura razionale , which was based on European modernism and was supposed to articulate itself in the increasingly important building material reinforced concrete , Gruppo 7 sought recognition and appreciation by the fascist regime. For the first time, the Gruppo 7 went public with the Architettura Razionale at the 1927 Biennale in Monza , where the national character was emphasized.
The Movimento Italiano per l'Architettura Razionale, 1928–1931
As early as 1928, the Gruppo 7 was renamed Movimento Architettura Razionale (Movement for Rational Architecture), in 1930 it was finally renamed Movimento Italiano per l'Architettura Razionale, MIAR (Italian Movement for Rational Architecture), the group was now organized and comprised nationwide about 50 members.
The first MIAR exhibition took place in Rome in 1928 in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni . Of great importance, however, was the group's second exhibition in 1931 in the Galleria d'Arte in Via Vittorio Veneto, which opened on March 31 in the presence of Benito Mussolini . Flanked by a six-point manifesto addressed directly to Mussolini and containing a clear commitment to fascism, the architects of MIAR tried to win the Duce over for their “coming fascist statehood”: in fact, when visiting the exhibition, Mussolini expressed himself quite benevolently .
The decisive factor in this second exhibition, however, was MIAR's extremely sharp criticism of 19th century architecture, the historicism of Armando Brasini, for example, and of the architects of the leading Scuola Romana (Roman School) around Marcello Piacentini , whose work was through a photomontage, the "Tavolo degli orrori" (table of horrors), were vilified. After the publication of the article “Report on Architecture to Mussolini” by gallery director Pietro Maria Bardi in the context of the exhibition, a heated public discussion ensued between the two camps, as a result of which the National Fascist Association of Architects, without whose approval the exhibition could not have taken place , withdrew his support. On the initiative of the association secretary Alberto Calza Bini, the Raggruppamento Architetti Moderni Italiani, RAMI was founded under the umbrella of the association of architects in order to integrate the modern movement into the association. Numerous members of MIAR, among them the founding members Larco and Rava, switched to the new group. Libera then dissolved MIAR as its secretary, and many of the more prominent members continued to work on rationalist projects without membership in an association.
literature
- Pfammatter, Ueli: Modernity and Power. "Razionalismo": Italian Architects 1927-1942. Braunschweig, Vieweg Verlag 1990
- Danesi, Silvia and Luciano Patetta (eds.): Il Razionalismo e l'architettura in Italia durante il fascismo. Venice 1976
- Benevolo, Leonardo : History of 19th and 20th Century Architecture. Volume 2: The Modern Movement. 4th edition. dtv, Munich 1988, pp. 227-234 (first publication: Storia dell'architettura moderna. Laterza, Bari 1960)