Skrevet af COPPA
Giuseppe Terragni's training as an architect can be placed in the
complex starting point of Italian Rationalism, wavering between the
Futurist legacy, the metaphysical language of Valori Plastici, and the
Classicism of the Novecento - the complex and entirely Italian pathway
to modernity, where the form and the aesthetic of the building are
subordinated to its technical and practical features. Terragni loved to
spend his nights working on a large table 'filled with drawings
helter-skelter', a cigarette dangling from his mouth in the company of
his cat Demiurgo. His fellow workers described him as being big and
tall, carelessly dressed, with 'heavy and awkward' hands that, however,
were skilled at drawing 'a slender sign, a very subtle, vibrant and neat
line'. Thus was born the Casa del Fascio, the architect's most
representative work, a true and proper manifesto of Italian Rationalism -
but also the building destined to interpret the spirit of the Fascist
regime and to cause a stir.
