Italian Rationalism

Italian Rationalism is the modernist architecture of Italy between about 1926 and 1943. Buildings are composed of plain geometric volumes, with regular grids of square or rectangular openings and no applied ornament. Walls are rendered white or clad in stone and marble, and some facades use glass blocks. Late 1930s state commissions sometimes repeat round arches in a symmetrical, monumental block.

Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio in Como (1932-1936) has a square plan, four stories, and walls clad in stone and marble. The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in the EUR district of Rome (1938-1943) is a travertine-clad block with six rows of nine round arches on each of its four facades. Other examples are Florence's Santa Maria Novella station (1932-1934) and Turin's Palazzo Gualino (1928-1930). Unlike the International Style, which favors glass walls hung on steel or concrete grids, Italian examples keep solid, clad walls pierced by openings, and many follow classical symmetry.

Italian Rationalism began with Gruppo 7, founded in 1926 by Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni and Ubaldo Castagnoli. Adalberto Libera replaced Castagnoli in 1927. The group published its manifesto in the journal Rassegna Italiana and aimed to reform architecture by balancing classical principles with the industrial aesthetic of the early 20th century. The Movimento Italiano per l'Architettura Razionale (MIAR) formalized the movement in 1930.

The movement received commissions from the Fascist regime, though the state often favored more classical architecture. Terragni's Casa del Fascio in Como was built in 1932-1936. The E42 exhibition district in Rome, headed by Marcello Piacentini, was established in 1936 for a 1942 world's fair. The fair was never held, and work stopped in 1942. Terragni died in 1943. The movement waned after the 1940s, and Neo-rationalism emerged in Italy in the late 1960s.