Читать книгу Monument Future - Siegfried Siegesmund - Страница 28

The use of marble and natural stone in Italian architecture strongly increased in the third decade of 20th century, after a period (1900-20) when the “artificial stone”, made of Portland cement moulded in hundred of different shapes, was omnipresent (Biondelli 2004a). Many factors were involved: new architectural trends; rein-forced concrete framing where the stone lost any structural function, large availability of stone materials throughout the Italian territory; new methods of quarry working; cut of thin slabs suitable for cladding; improvement of trucks, trains, roads and railways. Moreover the stone industry was boosted by the policy (called Autarchia) planned by the Fascist government to hinder the Sanctions of the League of Nations (november 1935); so, despite a very low import from foreign countries (i. e. blue syenite from Larvik, Norway), dozens of new quarries were opened and the ancient ones were expanded. Acting in accordance with this policy, the reintroduction of the structural use of stone, in order to reduce the import of fuel and iron, (Portland cement and reinforced concrete), was also advised, but never applied (Peverelli 1939).

The return of the marbles on the building façades was really significant in Milan, the capital of the most important industrial area of Italy. A group of young architects was ahead of a very impressive urban change, juxtaposing huge scales or massive forms of Fascist public architecture and clean outlines or simple forms of residential buildings for the capitalist ruling class, according to the thesis of “Novecento” and “Razionalismo”.