E42 (Esposizione 1942) was the original name of the World's Fair area in the south of Rome, which was later changed to EUR (abbreviation for Esposizione Universale di Roma). The exhibition was supposed to take place in 1942, to mark the 20th anniversary of the "March to Rome" and show the world the "results of good rule" of the fascist regime in Italy. In connection with the outbreak of the Second World War, it did not take place like that; however, some of its facilities, laid down in the late 1930s, were completed in the post-war period and, at the end of the 1950s, were supplemented with sports, hotel and administrative facilities for the infrastructure of the 1960 Olympics (among the latter, the Pier Luigi Nervi Palace of Sports, 1958-59), formed a new area of Rome on the motorway connecting the city to the sea. Known today as EUR (although the modern official name is “quartiere Europa”), the area is an important business, commercial and cultural center, and, unlike the historic city center, acts as a free platform for the implementation of modern architectural projects: for example, now Renzo Piano and Massimiliano Fuksas have been working here.
In 1935, the governor of Rome, Giuseppe Bottai, gave Mussolini the idea of organizing a World Exhibition in the capital, which would glorify the Italian nation and the fascist regime. Mussolini liked the idea, among other things, because it would be possible for the whole world to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the “March to Rome”, the so-called “fascist revolution”. In 1936, the venue for the exhibition was approved, and Vittorio Cini was appointed its general secretary. Then they organized numerous architectural competitions, carried out active advertising and propaganda activities. Academician Marcello Piacentini, creator of the so-called. The “littorio style”, the odious “simplified neoclassicism”; however, he assembled a team of young architects from different regions of the country, apologists for the "modern movement", which in Italy was called "rationalism." Responsible for the planning of the area, apart from Piacentini, were:
Giuseppe Pagano from Turin, an experienced modernist, publisher of the Casa bella magazine, author of numerous projects implemented in various cities in Italy, including the Faculty of Physics of the La Sapienza University of Rome complex (1934);
Luigi Piccinato, Roman architect, author of the famous Sabaudia - the most striking example of urban planning in the direction of modernism in Italy;
Luigi Vietti, author of one of the most striking works of rationalism - the passenger port in Genoa (1932), co-author of Giuseppe Terragni;
Ettore Rossi, lesser known but talented architect, co-author of the famous rationalist Liugi Moretti.
Architects of different stylistic preferences also worked on the projects of individual buildings, but in more or less the same key: fulfilling the requirements of complex construction. For example, the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (1938-1955) by the traditionalist architect Arnaldo Foschini and the exedra building (1939-1943) by the neoclassicist Giovanni Muzio do not contradict the post office (1937-1942) of the BBPR rationalist group and the Congress Building (1937-1954). former Chairman of the Movement for Contemporary Italian Architecture (MIAR) Adalberto Libera. The most illustrative example of such a stylistic phenomenon is the Palace of Italian Civilization (1937-1952) by Ernesto La Padula, Giovanni Guerrini and Mario Romano, the so-called "Colosseo quadrato" ("Square Colosseum"), a kind of brand of the area and Italian architecture of Mussolini's time. In this way, the E42 became an example of collaboration and compromise between the historicizing movement and the "modern movement". Moreover, these two trends of the 1930s. reacted with each other, and the result was a kind of recognizable architecture with complex stylistic attribution.
In addition to buildings, the "era of the construction of the World Exhibition" left behind a huge number of competitive projects - approved but unrealized objects. One of the most striking examples of these non-embodied ideas is the Arch of the architect Adalberto Lieber, designed in 1939; her image even appeared on the official advertising poster for the World's Fair.
And today a proposal has been put forward to implement this project. The idea of its "restoration" was expressed by the deputy of the Democratic Party Fabio Rumpelli and has already caused controversy in the professional environment of architects and architects. Four authoritative historians of architecture also spoke on this matter: Paolo Marconi, Renato Nicolini, Giorgio Muratore and Giorgio Cucci.
Paolo Marconi, professor of restoration at the University of Roma Tre, architect, historian, famous figure in the "plastic surgery" of monuments and museumification of heritage ("The Return of Beauty" is the title of one of his last works) spoke in favor: "The goal is to discover, as far as possible, the conceived appearance of the EUR seems to me interesting. EUR is a myth for foreigners, it is considered a kind of open-air museum of 1930s architecture,”says the restorer, but as a professional he doubts the possibility of its authentic implementation:“And the arch is a magnificent piece of architecture. The problem is this: is there a place where to put it … The grammar of the project requires that it be erected in the place envisaged by the project (neither more nor less, where the Pier Luigi Nervi Palace of Sports is now located), and this is not easy."
The former member of the city council for culture, Renato Nicolini, is also in doubt. As a historian, he is worried about the historical truth: “… We are talking about building according to modern technologies, but the value of the arch is that it was designed according to the technologies of the early 1940s. A good idea can turn into useless kitsch. " Nicolini is also against tourist speculations on historical and political topics: "… There is a huge part of the project of the E42 complex that was not implemented, what we have, we must preserve, but it makes no sense to turn it into an exhibition on the theme of Rome Mussolini."
The idea is considered absurd by Giorgio Muratore, professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza, author of numerous works on the history of architecture of the twentieth century. With his usual polemical fervor, the professor said that he would prefer to comment on Godzilla. “Everything has its time,” he said, “this arch symbolized the Italian realities of those years, it is absurd to propose to build it today. Do you need to summon a ghost? " The architect per natura, Muratore, tried to conceptualize the proposal: “Rather, you need to think, since modern technologies allow it, about a virtual arch, immaterial, made of light. It would be a proposal to speculate about."
The idea does not at all convince Giorgio Cucci, professor of the history of modern architecture at the University of Roma Tre, secretary of the Academy of Arts of St. Luke, specialist in Libera's work. He, like Nicolini, is worried about the historical truth, he, like Muratore, does not want seances, in addition, the professor recalled that the Libera arch had already been implemented in the 1950s by Ero Saarinen in St. Louis. It is not clear to the Jucci the reason that prompted Rumpelli to come up with his proposal; he explains: “The arch, when it was conceived, had a very great symbolic and political significance, embodied the myth of [Italian] domination in the Mediterranean. Why build it today when the context has changed profoundly?"
Deputy Rumpelli, from whose mouth the proposal came, is a "right-wing" theorist of urban planning, a defender of the historical heritage, mainly the architecture of the twentieth century and, especially, the interwar period. He is known for his architectural battles: against the reconstruction of the sports complex "Foro Italico" ("Italian Forum"; earlier - Foro Mussolini, 1928-1938, architect Enrico Del Debbio with the participation of Luigi Moretti), which provides for the destruction of its interiors with monumental and decorative design 1930 -x years, and also - against the construction of a residential complex for 20 thousand people near the Appian Way. In addition, he became famous as a fighter for the preservation of traditional Roman shops - "the last hearth of" italianità "(Italian character)" and the initiator of the movement of the Chinese market from the Esquiline Hill. One of the last sensational discussions, in which Fabio Rumpelli took part, was the controversy about the demolition of the skyscrapers by the architect Cesare Ligini, built for the Roman Olympics-60 in EUR, and the construction of the Nuvola (Cloud) complexes by Massimiliano Fuksas and Casa di Vetro "(" Glass House ") Renzo Piano: the deputy strongly opposed modern intervention in the existing buildings and for the preservation of the post-war heritage.
This deputy architect strives to preserve the Eternal City. A special attitude to cultural values is part of the nature of any Italian, it is already in the blood at birth. The culture of the museum and the antique shop dates back two millennia. Here, the department of art history is called "History and preservation of artistic heritage" ("Storia e conervazione del patrimonio artistico"). Only here Mussolini's words "troppo moderno" ("too modern") on individual projects for the E42 take on a special connotation. The main thing here is to preserve and prevent “too modern”: the 1960s, compared to the first decade of the 21st century, are already “patrimonio artistico”, Piano and Fuksas are “troppo moderno”. But if there is a 1939 project, then, of course, everything speaks in its favor, however, in comparison with it, it turns out troppo moderno Nervi Sports Palace - by the way, a contemporary of Libera …
Sometimes Rumpelli's views on urban planning resemble the building policy of Rome the Third: “… the arch - which is important - needs to be implemented in accordance with the Libera project, but according to the latest technologies, with the money of investors, some have already expressed interest. It will not only be an impressive geometric shape, but it will have its own function - for example, a "roof-garden".
The idea of building an arch in the late 1930s in modern Rome is pretentious and tendentious. The implementation of Leonidov's People's Commissariat for Tyazhprom could become congenial to this enterprise, with the difference that the EUR region is located on the periphery and does not include historical buildings (however, the concept of “historical buildings” in Italy is expanding along the arrow of time towards the present day). Or is this already an example of the museification of 20th century architecture, which is already beginning to be perceived as the past? Or speculation on the romantic intentions of modernism, "improved and supplemented" with parking lots, cafes and trendy shops? Or a manifestation of widespread interest in totalitarian regimes? Moscow Hotel, Tempelhoff Airport?
Such proposals help to feel very keenly the essence of both the architecture of the 1930s, which loses its meaning without a contextual "filling", and our era, which in fear of losing its originality looks at Italian, Soviet, American, French, etc. pre-war postcards and posters, depicting faces glowing with the happiness of owning cologne or cigarettes, the tallest buildings, the fastest cars, and suddenly again believes that the picture is the best of the worlds and he really was, but something prevented him from living to the present day, and today justice can be restored - thanks to investors, new technologies and financial benefits that will bring to the city and the world in the realized form an unfinished or yet unfinished masterpiece.
The author of the giant Arch himself, Adalberto Libera, said the following: “In EUR, which even today seems to be the graveyard of our hopes, everyone has lost as much as they could”.
History reference
1937–1940 - Design of the Symbol Arch for the E42 in Rome. Arch. Adalberto Libera, Ing. C. Cirella, J. Carpet, V. Di Berardino.
The arch was supposed to be a real challenge to modern construction technologies. During the design of the World Exhibition E'42, various options for its location were put forward, but always on the Via Imperiale (now Cristoforo Colombo), the central axis of the complex, as a kind of gateway to Rome from the side of the motorway leading from the sea. In the first projects (circa 1937) it was located at the entrance to E'42 from the city side, then, according to the plan of 1938, next to the lake, as a framing of the Palace of Water and Light, like a huge architectural rainbow. For the first time in Libera's work, images of the arch appear in the first sketches for the E'42 complex (1930-1931), then in the project of the Palace of Italian Civilization (1937). Numerous versions of the 1939 arch project demonstrate the search for an optimal technical solution. With a constant and variable cross-section, tape, cross, with an oval cross-section - but always devoid of decorative design, made of unreinforced concrete with a treated surface, with an arc diameter of 200 m. Then the company Nervi & Bartoli offered two versions of this structure: reinforced concrete or precast concrete segments … At the same time, another design group (Ortenzi, Pascoletti, Cirella, Carpet) investigated the possibility of erecting an arch from metal: the commission chose the shape of the Libera-Di Bernardino arch, but preferred metal as the material. As a result, two groups were created: one - consisting of architects (Libera, Ortenzi, Pascoletti), the other - technical (Cirella, Kovre, Di Bernardino). Lieber's team worked on the formal side of the project, while the other was looking for a technical solution. The Commission approved the proposal to implement the arch as a structure of steel clad in aluminum alloy: mainly because the project provided for the use of only Italian materials. The development of the project continued until 1941, during its course the diameter of the arch was increased to 320 m, and as the technique was chosen aluminum stamping (Avional D aluminum), and also a model of one of the segments in full size was executed. This Roman arch was never built, but the desire to implement the idea arises from time to time. An example is the famous "Gateway Arch" by Ero Saarinen in St. Louis, Missouri (project 1947-1948, implementation 1963-1965).
The project of the arch, which is proposed to be realized today in Rome, dates back to 1939. On the hill where the Pier Luigi Nervi Palace of Sports is now located, in the late 1930s it was planned to build a building-fountain (the Palace of Water and Light), which would form a single complex with the arch. The palace was supposed to have the shape of the base of the exedra facing the lake. The architectural design of the slopes of the hill and the nearby park was also implied. Above the building in the center of this ensemble, on its dome, a 30-pointed star was supposed to rise, which played the role of both a fountain and a searchlight: it emitted rays of light and jets of water, which, merging into a cascade, would feed the waters of the lake. Thus, if we turn to the design drawing, supposedly executed by Stefania Boscaro, the Arch erected behind the Palace seems to be a real rainbow, created by water and the light of the rays of a star.
Adalberto Libera (Villa Lagarina, Trento, 07.16.1903 - Rome, 03.17.1963), architect, one of the most prominent representatives of the architecture of rationalism in Italy, I half. XX century. Studied at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Rome. In 1927 he entered the first association of rationalist architects "Gruppo7", participated in the design of the Weissenhoff settlement in Stuttgart, in 1930 founded M. I. A. R. (Movimento Italiano di Architettura Razionale, Italian Movement for Rational Architecture), one of the organizers and participant of the First (1928) and Second (1931) "Exhibitions of Italian Rational Architecture". Main buildings: Post office in Via Marmorata, 1933, Rome; Italian Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Brussels, 1935; Palace of Congresses, 1937-1954, EUR, Rome; Villa Malaparte, 1938-1940, Capri; Olympic Village, 1958-1959, Rome.
