A lightning bolt. The activity of Bruno Zevi in post-war Italy

Authors

  • Maria Clara Ghia Sapienza Università di Roma

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2018102939

Keywords:

Space, history of architecture, organic architecture, Reconstruction, Frank Lloyd Wright

Abstract

This essay focuses on Bruno Zevi’s working period immediately after Second World War, coming back to Italy after his stay in London and in the USA. He starts right away his impressive attempt of popularizing contemporary architecture through “Metron”, the first magazine to be printed in Italy after the war, from 1945 to 1954. In this crucial phase he founded the APAO (Association for Organic Architecture), he contributed to the editing of the Manuale dell'Architetto (an handbook with all the new construction and ready-assembly techniques), he published Verso un'architettura organica (1945), Saper vedere l'architettura (1948) and Storia dell'architettura moderna (1950), he curated the first Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit in Italy and he greatly contributed to the spreading of modern architecture and urbanism all around the country. Zevi also paying special attention to social issues, raised the question of inner spaces where man lives and where the collective theme is expressed, and stressed the need of shaping the building in the name of human use and enjoyment.

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Author Biography

Maria Clara Ghia, Sapienza Università di Roma

Maria Clara Ghia (Rome, 1976). Architect, PhD in Architecture and in Philosophy, she currently teaches History of Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome. In 2016/2017 she was Senior Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Umeå University in Sweden. Since 2003 she has participated in research activities of several Labs at Sapienza University, among them the Osservatorio sul Moderno and the LTCAC - Theories and critique of contemporary architecture. She has been member of editorial boards of magazines including “Controspazio” (Gangemi: Rome) and “Psiche” (Il Mulino: Bologna). In 2011 she won the Bruno Zevi International Prize for an essay on the work of Leonardo Ricci. Publications include: Da Roma verso il mare. Storie percorsi immagini della città moderna e contemporanea (Gangemi: Rome 2017), Prescrivere Liberare. Saggio su ethos e architettura (Officina edizioni: Rome 2013).  mariaclara.ghia@gmail.com

References

Books and articles by Bruno Zevi:
Zevi, Bruno. 1945. Verso un’architettura organica. Torino: Einaudi.
_____. 1948. Saper vedere l’architettura. Torino: Einaudi.
_____. Messaggio al Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne. Della cultura architettonica. Metron 31-32 (January – February 1949): 6-30.
_____. 1950 a. Cari lettori. Metron 37 (June-July): 1.
_____. 1950 b. Storia dell’architettura moderna. Torino: Einaudi.
_____. 1954. Non è colpa degli architetti. Il Ponte 2 (February): 242-246.
_____. 1959 Inaugural speech. Lecture for the foundation of the In/Arch at the Ridotto del Teatro Eliseo, Rome.
_____. 1993. Zevi su Zevi. Rome: Marsilio.
_____. 1997. Architettura ed arte a confronto. In Di Stefano, Anna Maria, ed. Forma 1 1947-1951. Rome: Gangemi.
_____. 1998. Il manifesto di Modena. Paesaggistica e grado zero della scrittura architettonica. Venezia: Saggi Canal.
General bibliography:
Adorno, Theodor. 1951. Minima Moralia: Meditazioni della vita offesa. Torino: Einaudi.
Argan, Giulio Carlo. 1947. Introduzione a Wright. Metron 18: 9-24.
Ciucci, Giorgio. 1989. Gli architetti e il fascismo. Torino: Einaudi.
Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche. 1946. Manuale dell’architetto (CNR – USIS)
De Angelis d’Ossat, Guglielmo. 1945. Un problema del dopoguerra: il restauro dei monumenti. Metron 2 (September): 44-46.
Dulio, Roberto. 2008. Introduzione a Bruno Zevi. Rome-Bari: Laterza.
Editorial staff. 1947. Sistemazione delle Cave Ardeatine. Metron 18: 35-47.
Fabbri, Marcello. 1975. Ideologie degli urbanisti nel Dopoguerra. Bari: De Donato.
Giedion, Sigfried. 1941. Space Time and Architecture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hitchcock, Henry Russel. 1942. In the Nature of Materials. The building of Frank Lloyd Wright 1887-1941. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
Mumford, Lewis. 1945. Una introduzione americana al garden cities of tomorrow. Metron 1 (August): 2-12.
Pampaloni, Geno. 1988. Dall’utopia alle riforme, l’esperienza interrotta. in Fabbri, Marcello and Greco, Antonella. La Comunità concreta: progetto e immagine. Rome: Quaderni della Fondazione Olivetti.
Pevsner, Nikolaus. 1936. Pioneers of the Modern Movement. London: Faber & Faber.
Read, Herbert. 1943. Education through art. London: Faber & Faber.
Samonà, Giuseppe. 1947. I progetti per il completamento frontale della stazione di Roma Termini. Metron 21: 8-22.
Sert, Luis Sert. 1946. La scala umana nell’urbanistica. Metron 8 (March): 5-19.
Venturi, Lionello. 1945. Storia della critica d’arte. Firenze: Edizioni U.
Wright, Frank Lloyd. 1951. La sovranità dell’individuo. Metron 41-42 (May – August): 21-31.

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Published

2018-07-20

How to Cite

Ghia, M. C. (2018). A lightning bolt. The activity of Bruno Zevi in post-war Italy. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, (10), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2018102939