Marcello Piacentini
Marcello Piacentini ( born December 8, 1881 in Rome, † May 19, 1960 in Rome ) was an Italian architect, who was promoted during the fascist regime, the first " state architect " of Mussolini. In marked contrast, however, to Albert Speer and its outstanding position as an architect of Hitler in Nazi Germany Piacentini was not equipped with full powers or special rights.
Life
His father, Pio Piacentini (1846-1928), was a famous architect and representatives of the Roman eclecticism. At his father's architectural firm collected Marcello Piacentini first experiences, such as the common design for the National Library of Florence (1903-1906) in the Neo-Renaissance style.
Piacentinis architectural style in the 1930s is characterized by an eclectic Neomonumentalismus looking positively occupied building blocks of a past time to transfer into the present by having sharp-edged classical columns on square pillars (without base and capital ) and arcades, can be slick colonnades and while the human scale deliberately hides as a reference. His concern is rather to legitimize dictatorial power by his vocabulary and to represent over dimension.
The highlight of his career occurred in the period of fascism: To 1933/1934 is Piacentinis position as an architect already unprecedented. He is Chairman of the Supreme Council of the public buildings, a member of the Italian Academy, Professional Association President, head of the Supreme Commission of Fine Arts, director of architecture and engineering faculty of the University of Rome and chief editor of Italy's largest trade magazine Architettura. His leadership allowed him the placement of orders and reaching compromises on the part of almost all rationalist architect, he could commit to cooperation. A game with clearly assigned roles, because especially the representatives of the rationalist were anxious to finally arrive after a long wait of important works.
When important for the Città Universitaria Piacentini planning in Rome (1932-1935), for which he builds the strictly axial, clad in travertine Rectorate building, he occupied with fine calculus a mediating role: With the integration of rationalist architect Giuseppe Pagano and Giovanni Michelucci in the project he directs sent a the DC circuit and fusion process of Italian architecture. Only under his direction was found for the participating architects of rationalist architecture of the chance of realization. The meaningful connection between architecture and power Piacentini had envisioned very quickly. His negotiating skills and his increasingly established position contributed decisively to accelerate the supremacy led by him, the group of " Scuola Romana ".
His works can be found all over Italy, but especially in Rome, where he developed the image of the city in fascism by a reduced Neoclassicism much coined as an influential " architetto del regime". Above all, its urban development plans, which are to this day read in the Italian capital, were of importance. Through the glorification of ancient buildings as a reference to the eternal city and its great history many historic buildings were exempted spatially by the destruction of adjacent buildings. Also, the Via della Conciliazione (1934/1950) project, pursued by the exposure of the access road to St. Peter this urban principle.
Piacentinis urban principal work of the General Plan for the World's Fair grounds E42 in Rome. Exactly at the point where Piacentini wanted place for Benito Mussolini the "Altar of the New Order " at the end of a gigantic road axis was to the Summer Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, the glass rotunda of the Palazzo dello Sport by Pier Luigi Nervi.
Journalistic activity
Of May 1921 Piacentini founded together with Gustavo Giovannoni magazine Architettura e Arti decorative, the 1927 was with the September-October issue of the official organ of the National Fascist Association of Architects. With the December issue of 1931 this magazine was published for the last time and was from 1932 replaced by " Architettura ". Here took Marcello Piacentini until the last issue in December 1942, the chief editor. Even in the subsequent journal " Architettura, Rassegna di Architettura ", which was published from January 1943 to April 1944, Piacentini has held an important position as editor.
Works (selection)
- Italian Pavilion ( World's Fair ), Paris, 1910
- Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Rome ( Piazza d' Armi quarter ), 1911
- Villino Allegri, Rome, 1913-19
- Italian Pavilion at the Panama - Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
- Cinema Corso, Rome, 1915-1917
- Palace of Justice, Bergamo, 1916-22
- Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re in Viale Mazzini in Rome, 1919-1934
- Cinema Teatro Savoia, Florence, 1922
- Palace of Justice, Messina, 1923-1928
- Casa Madre dei Mutilati, Rome, 1924-28
- Casale Fogaccia nell'Agro Romano, 1924-29
- Variant of the general development plan (draft), Rome, 1925-26
- Albergo degli Ambasciatori in Via Veneto, Rome, 1925-1926
- Victory Monument, Bolzano, 1926-28
- Redesign of the center of Bergamo, 1927
- Palazzo del Ministero delle Corporazioni in Via Veneto, Rome, 1927-32
- Cassa Nazionale per le Assicurazioni Sociali, Milan, 1928-31
- Transformation of the city center of Brescia (Piazza della Vittoria), 1928-32
- Casa per abitazioni in Via Lungotevere Tor di Nona, Rome, 1929-31
- Dell'Università degli studi Palazzo del Rettorato di Roma " La Sapienza ", 1932-1935
- Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria, 1932-1941
- General development plan for Bolzano, 1933
- Palace of Justice, Milan, 1933
- Banca Agricola Milanese, Milan, 1933-34
- Palazzo Missori, Milan, 1933-38
- Transformation of the Via Roma, Turin, 1934-38
- Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali, Trieste, 1935-37/1938-39
- Skyscraper Invernizzi, Genoa, 1937-41
- Urban development plan for the E42 ( EUR ), Rome, 1938
- Headquarters of the Banco di Napoli, Naples, 1939-40
- University Chapel La Divina Sapienza (University La Sapienza ), Rome, 1945-48
- Via della Conciliazione Rome, planning beginning in 1934, realization 1948-1950