A unique movement in the history of architecture, Brutalism has captivated many architects worldwide, particularly in Italy. Two Italian photographers have chosen to capture these massive and unusual silhouettes in Brutalist Italy, published by Fuel.
The book Brutalist Italy compiles a selection of more than one hundred Italian brutalist buildings through 146 photographs, taken by Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego.
It took the two architectural photographers five years to gather these images, traveling over 20,000 km throughout all regions of the Peninsula. This is because virtually the entire country had acquired buildings in this style between the 1960s and the 1980s.
Among the "stars" of the book are the Casa del Portuale in Naples, but also the cemetery of Jesi, the sanctuary of Mount Grisa in Trieste, and the residential complex washing machines (washing machines) of Genoa. The book brings together stunning examples of Italian Brutalist architecture, which is characterized by the use of exposed reinforced concrete and clear, well-defined structural elements, creating a unique aesthetic.
"Their aim was to emphasize that concrete could belong not just to one era, but to several. That it could represent both the present (or the future) and the past." explains Adrian Forty, professor emeritus of architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, in the book's introduction. The academic also emphasizes: "Italian architects distinguished themselves from their counterparts around the world. During the 20th century..."e In the 19th century, concrete was generally treated exclusively as a material oriented towards the future – it signified an era that had not yet arrived, and the fact that it also had a past was vigorously denied. But circumstances in Italy have made architects concerned with representing its past as well as its future.
Brutalist Italy by Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego
Fuel Publishing, August 2023
€ 35,00
