Anonimous Heroes. Giuseppe Pagano’s Praise of Rural Architecture

Abstract

At the Triennale di Milano in 1936, the architect Giuseppe Pagano curated the exhibition “Architettura rurale nel bacino del Mediterraneo” together with Werner Daniel. Pagano delved into this proposal through theoretical articles, mainly from his position as director of Casabella magazine, as well as with his own photography and architectural projects. He developed an idea of rural architecture as a community work, done by anonymous heroes as a reflection of the honesty and truth that the soil provides. He presented it as a first-rate aesthetic and rational exercise, connecting it directly with the functionalism of the most advanced architects of the Modern Movement, going beyond Mussolini's pre-established ideas. This paper recognizes the most revealing proposals of Pagano's praise of the rural and puts them in relation to government policies and to other recognitions of the rural architecture. Thus, it will be related to contemporary proposals developed by Josep Lluís Sert from Spain, and with those made in the following decades in such relevant exhibitions as “Architettura spontanea” curated by Giancarlo De Carlo and “Architecture without Architects” directed by Bernard Rudofsky.