The Nostalgic Subject and the Reactionary Figure: Italian Architecture in 1972

Abstract

This thesis considers the works of two divergent architectural movements in Italy in 1972, the Neo-Rationalist Tendenza and the revolutionary Architettura Radicale, and examines their treatment of the human figure as a means of understanding the strikingly different built environments that were created during the period. The rapidly shifting political, cultural, and socio-psychological milieu in Italy during the years following World War II transformed the meaning of the family unit and the significance of the individual and deeply affected the manner in which architects sought to address the needs of those who inhabited their structures. In Florence the group Superstudio envisioned radical environments that eschewed dominant architectural methodologies in favor of a reductive form of architecture that sought to push capitalistic trends toward their logical and inevitable conclusion. In Milan the architects Aldo Rossi and Carlo Aymonino were constructing the Monte Amiata housing project in the Gallaratese quarter, a series of structures rooted in the architectonic principles of the past, within which the role of the human figure is a more nebulous concept. The architectural projects conceived in Italy in 1972 represent a paradigm shift with regards to the role of the end-user in the urban environment.