Terragni's most important work is the house of the beam in Como (1932-36), considered the manifesto building of Italian rationalism. The house of the beam was a building that had no previous cultural references, in this case the architect solves it in an absolutely rationalist way. Terragni starts from an idea of Mussolini's Fascism, who considered Fascism as a glass house and therefore here too he wants to create a structure that can be easily penetrated.
The area on which it operates is small and was part of a project that started from the cathedral, from which you had to see two mirror buildings, but only one was built, the house of the beam.
The architect uses a classical system, along the lines of thought typical of rationalism and the regime, which always wants to start from premises related to classicism, so the house of the beam is a half cube covered with marble that is placed on a short staircase (to give monumentality), totally open entrances and possibility to completely eliminate the windows on the ground floor to allow a count between the crowd and the inside of the building, where you have a meeting room with a memorial altar of the fallen, considered the spiritual center of the building.
In addition to the volume of the half-cube, there are other regulatory traces that mark and control the facade, always classic methods that are applied to a rationalist architecture.
The building is on a square, with a large internal cavity, closed on the second floor by glass-cement, so as to give light to the floor below at double height; facades scan almost equally and in any case rationalist, except for the facade on the back which has a different scan and perhaps referred, according to critics, to the design of Palladio.
Designed for the competition of the Palazzo Littorio (1937) in Rome, the competition was unsuccessful but provided for a series of offices and a part of grade representativeness, in this case participating with two projects, of which only one comes to the second part of the competition.
His design has a large curved wall, raised above the ground supported by large trusses not visible from below, while at the back were placed offices (with the palace of the revolution), then works with very simple solids that fit and great effect the large facade of red granite.
In the second design, he proposed a triangular lot completed by a large tower and followed by the various buildings, increasing in height depending on availability.
He also designed the Rustici house in Milan (1933-35), it is an intervention that has a particularly strong impact on the urban fabric, they are two parallel blocks connected by passages. They are houses for real estate income and on the top floor there is the owner's apartment; the two masses are largely open to the environment through the use of balconies.
In the nursery school of Sant'Elia (1936-37) it has a square plan again, it is interesting to see how the structure is taken out from the block of classrooms, which are rearranged and glazed opening onto the outside environment; particular is the solution to create shade to the large windows with the use of sheets that can be stretched between the lintel of the structure carried in overhang and the block back. Great horizontality, even if small in size and brilliantly resolved.
The white villa was built for his cousin (1936-37) in Seveso, it is a parallelepiped block enlivened by overhanging elements such as the canopies or the staircase leading to the surrounding land, elements that may remind us of the de stilj, we also see the resumption of ribbon windows typical of rationalism.
Also interesting is the project for the Danteum in Rome (1938), it is a study center in relation to Dante near the Colosseum to which Terragni responds with a metaphor a sort of labyrinth which is accessed through a ladder and enters a room full of columns, corresponding to hell, the path continues with the purgatory and finally climbs to get to paradise with 33 crystal columns, a project much admired by Le Corbusier in an exhibition dedicated to Terragni.
He also built the Giuliani-Frigerio house in Como (1939-40) where there are two boxes inside each other and slightly moved (the apartments have different heights), with the recovery of the elements that we know well.
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