This book reconstructs the intellectual biography of Alberto Sartoris, one of the leading exponents of rational architecture in Italy.
[Alberto Sartoris. From autobiography to critique] This book reconstructs the intellectual biography of Alberto Sartoris. With a lively approach, the two authors have reconstructed the very long cultural adventure of “one of the few in Italy to make rational architecture in clear rebellion against decorative and stylistic cosmesis” (Raffaello Giolli). After early studies in Switzerland, Sartoris returned to Turin where he frequented the particularly stimulating intellectual circles of the day, which had formed in the 1920s around personalities like Lionello Venturi, Riccardo Gualino and Felice Casorati. In constant movement across the Alps and in Europe, Sartoris came into contact with the leading exponents of the architectural avantgarde, participating in the formation of the network of relationships, exchanges, encounters and projects from which the ideology of radical architecture drew its cosmopolitan character. Sartoris was present at the foundation of the CIAM, and his friendships included Le Corbusier and many others among the greatest architects of our time. He was also a writer, and had already published, in 1932, the famous work Elementi dell’architettura razionale. The second part of the volume contains documents of great interest from his letters and important European archives.