A new book on brutalist Italian architecture by the photographers Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego shines a light on Italy’s greatest (and most neglected) works in concrete building. Conte and Perego, whose previous monographs include Soviet Asia, spent five years assembling this portfolio of the country’s contribution to the brutalist architecture movement.
Brutalist Italy: Concrete architecture from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea
A celebration of brutalist Italian architecture
Italian brutalism always had a rawer edge than its more rational, robust equivalents elsewhere. There’s something especially sculptural, almost wilfully ephemeral about projects like the spindly columns of Luigi Ciapparella’s cemetery extension in Busto Arsizio, 1971, or the museum dedicated to the sculptor Augusto Murer, designed by Giuseppe Davanzo in 1971, with its bright red roofs and extended steel frame.
Unfinished residential building, Bisaccia, by Aldo Loris Rossi, 1981, built in 1990
In part, this was a reaction against the stripped classical austerity of fascism, but it was also a response to the Catholic church’s shifting priorities and new ways of worship that saw the reshaping of traditional church architecture. There are plenty of churches (and cemeteries) within, but the only thing they share is a desire to be different.
Our Lady of Tears Sanctuary, Syracuse, by Michel Andrault, Pierre Parat, 1966–94
In his introduction, the architectural historian Adrian Forte quotes the architect Luigi Figini, writing of his church of Madonna dei Poveri in Milan, as saying that ‘the defects of this building are many and great; but in truth, I do not know how I could have avoided them’. In Italy, brutalism wasn’t some rational expression of ultimate truth, merely another means of architectural expression, one that didn’t always work out.
Villa Gontero, Cumiana, by Carlo Graffi , Sergio Musmeci, 1969–71
As well as the heroes of the era, there are also many ruins featured, whether unfinished or abandoned. Perhaps none are as spectacular and evocative as Giuseppe Perugini, Raynaldo Perugini, and Uga de Plaisant’s Tree House in Fregene, a graffitied, long-neglected husk that rivals Gillespie, Kidd & Coia’s St. Peter's Seminary in Cardross, Scotland, as one of the great romantic remnants of pure modernist invention.
Jesus the Redeemer Church, Turin, by Nicola Mosso, Leonardo Mosso, Livio Norzi, 1954–7
Brutalist Italy contains such a cavalcade of concrete riches that it seems selfish to publish any more images here; you’ll have to buy the book to see the best ones.
Saint Mary Immaculate Church, Longarone, by Giovanni Michelucci, 1966–82
Brutalist Italy: Concrete architecture from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea, Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego, £26.95, FUEL Publishing
Fuel-Design.com
Also available from amazon.co.uk
-
A new limited-edition Rhodes piano and Gibson doubleneck guitar aim for the starsThe new Rhodes Mk8 Earth Edition piano and Gibson Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck guitar revisit classic instruments at a price
-
The new interior design trends we spotted at Salone del Mobile 2024These are the interior design trends to look out for in 2024 and beyond, from soft upholstery to conversation pits and low dining
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaignTiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
-
Giovanni Michelucci’s dramatic concrete church in the Italian DolomitesGiovanni Michelucci’s concrete Church of Santa Maria Immacolata in the Italian Dolomites is a reverently uplifting memorial to the victims of a local disaster
-
Milan’s 10 Corso Como revamp nods to the concept store’s industrial characterMilanese concept store 10 Corso Como unveils its new look by 2050+, a stripped-back design that nods to its 20th-century character
-
Carlo Ratti announced curator of Venice Architecture Biennale 2025Carlo Ratti has been revealed as the Director of the Architecture Department at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, with the specific task of curating the 19th International Architecture Exhibition
-
This 1970s brutalist house in Belgium has a new life as a designer’s home and studio1970s brutalist house Villa Stuyven is now home to creative couple Bram Kerkhofs and Lore Baeyens, providing a concrete-lined backdrop to a life of design and collaboration
-
Floating infinity pool by Herzog & De Meuron at Lake Como is largest of its kindHerzog & de Meuron creates the largest floating infinity pool in the world for Mandarin Oriental in Lake Como
-
The finest brutalist architecture in London and beyondFor some of the world's finest brutalist architecture in London and beyond, scroll below. Can’t get enough of brutalism? Neither can we.
-
Studio Tropicana, Switzerland and Italy: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023Based in Switzerland and Italy, Studio Tropicana is part of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023, our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios
-
WeWork Meravigli blends past and present in a 21st-century office spaceWeWork Meravigli launches in Milan, bringing its ornate, historical new home to the 21st century
