An articulated repertory of over 200 buildings intended for the activities of the Opera Balilla, the most complex programs of transformation of society attempted by Fascism
This book presents the architectural achievement of
the Opera Balilla, which in just under a decade, in the 1920s
and 30s, was embodied in the creation of the complex
of the Foro Mussolini (today the Foro Italico) in Rome
and in hundreds of buildings scattered across the country:
the Case Balilla. In the projects and most significant
achievements of a new generation of
professionals, we can grasp the reflections of a
crucial question for developments in modern Italian
architecture between the two world wars: the attempt to define
a canon for the architecture of Fascism.
For the first time, using largely unpublished materials,
this book documents the phenomenon in all its breadth,
including a highly articulated repertory of over two
hundred buildings completed or planned and a selection of
exemplary architectural works illustrated with an extensive
iconographic apparatus.
Three essays recreate the full picture of the activities
of the Opera Balilla, analyzing the range of constructions,
the technical and typological features of the housing and
its active role in commissioning architecture in the most
significant years for relations between Italian architects
and Fascism. The volume is completed by an anthology of
period texts and an annotated bibliography