Terragni Day!

Ciao Ragazzi! Today we had a day trip to Lake Como, with an emphasis on great works by Giuseppe Terragni, an important Italian rationalist. We left bright and early via a Genovarent bus, which is always nice because we get great sleep on the way to and from our destinations. After a slight mix up with direction,, we made it to Villa Bianca, an apartment design for Terragni's cousin,, which thus allowed him to do whatever he wanted. The building was rather interesting not because of the architecture necessarily,, which was rather modern and well,,, plain, but what was interesting was the creepy sculptures scattered around the surrounding gardens. Luckily we didn't run into any rabid dogs like the sign on the gate warned against, but we did run into a slightly crazy man who gave us postcards and told us about being married for 55 years. Great guy. Next we headed actually into Como and hit Terragni's War Memorial. Although Terragni won the competition for this memorial, he was forced to change his design to replicate a sketch drawn by Antonio Sant'Elia--- the leader of futurism--- before he died in the war. So this monument is interesting because it is both futurist and rationalist, and thus greatly shows the very close correlation between these two movements. This monument is right on Lake Como, so from there we got some good views of the surrounding countryside. Next we went to what is considered the first modern building in Italy (disregarding Ca' Brutta which no one really cares about) The Nococomum Apartment Building. It was nice to see in person and see it's great contrast to the baroque decorative architecture directly beside it, but it wasn't as impressive as the pictures made it look. However, it has been modified over the years so it less jarring texturally and colorly (?I had to make up a word there, apologies?). Next we had lunch, and directly following lunch, we saw my favorite building of the whole visit...

The Casa Del Fascio is a building in the center of Como which was meant to be a house for fascism,,, exactly as the title implies. Thus the architecture is full of propoganda to reflect the "clarity and honesty" of the fascist party. Thus the architecture is simple and utilizes a lot of glazing and natural lighting so that you can literally see right through the bottom level of the structure,, and you "know" what is going on at all times. However, this is a very skewed perception, because if you count the column grid, there are a lot of rooms hidden from this, not to mention the other levels and the supposed basement where they housed all the people who disagreed with the fascist party. Thus this building is an insane paradox, and actually works perfectly with it's function, because the fascist party was the exact same thing--- a presented facade with an entirely different thing happening under the surface. The Casa Del Fascio thus perfectly reflects the contradictions of Fascism as well as serving as a model for how easily people could fall into Fascism's trap--- they were really rather good at propoganda. So maybe the architecture is not the best for architecture's sake, but it is one of the best correlations of form follows function that I have ever seen,,, even on levels that were not intended. Okay,, so yay fascists.

We also saw a Nursery School in the Sant'Elia Quarter in which Terragni designed everything on the scale of an elementary school kid,,, so needless to say, this was my place! Everything was so cute and tiny including the handrails, bathrooms, and tables and chairs. It was also interesting how he took a city setting and added as much green space and natural lighting as possible to give the kids a great rural experience while in school. All in all, it was a cool place.

We headed back and are now back to our usual studio routine, but Terragni day was definitely a positive addition to this trip. As for those of you who may be concerned with the rest of my family--- I didn't hear from them today, but I should tomorrow once they arrive in Parma, so I will keep you posted! Thank you and goodnight!

~Heather