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

Maria Clara Ghia

doi:10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2018102939

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.

Highlights

On the 4th of June 1944, the Allied Forces entered Rome
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, 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
The fulfilment of Venturi’s approach, the attention to the origins of modernity to be investigate looking at the past, and the openness to all other artistic and technical expressions - from painting to sculpture to music to craftsmanship to industrial production - as fundamental clues of taste and style, was matured in Zevi’s crucial text, the Storia dell’Architettura Moderna, published in December of 195036

Summary

Introduction

On the 4th of June 1944, the Allied Forces entered Rome. On the 31st of July, Bruno Zevi returned to his hometown after five years of exile, due to racial laws and after travelling to London and to the United States. Ragghianti was already well-known: just one year after graduation, his essays on Carracci was published in the “Critica” magazine by Benedetto Croce Around his figure, a circle of scholars gathered together, including Giulio Carlo Argan, Cesare Brandi, Antonello Trombadori and Zevi. Zevi was a member of the USIS, United States Information Service at the American Embassy in Rome, and his cultural contacts with the United States were of primary importance for the Reconstruction in Italy After the war he returned to America to gather information about new construction techniques, materials and prefabrication processes. After the war he returned to America to gather information about new construction techniques, materials and prefabrication processes5 His intent was to procure a scientific update as fast as possible, since Italians had been excluded from the international circuit since 1940. A model for the book, mentioned by Zevi himself, was the Architectural Graphic Standard by George Charles Ramsey

Centenarios de la Tercera Generación Centenaries of the Third Generation

Conclusion