Recently received as a gift was a monograph (2003) on Antonio Sant' Elia, a Trentino-esque architect and almost engineer before the First World War. Born in Como in 1888, Sant' Elia trained at the Castellani School of Fine Arts there before moving to Milano, where he became involved with the Futurists, an avant-garde of the arts and sciences, more or less based upon Marinetti's manifesto.
Sant' Elia had little chance to practise architecture and design, but he developed many proposals modeled somewhat after Adolf Loos or Otto Wagner and the other Viennese Secessionists. His sketches presaged much of (more) modern architecture. His earliest facade drawings are clearly Art Nouveau, with elements that could have come from Mucha paintings, although his later ones are nearly Brutalist and certainly designed for concrete construction. The drawings, structurally sound and beautifully rendered and coloured, are gorgeous. There is even one of his designs that looks like the Hoover building on the A40(M) in London.
The man spent much time considering the 'modernist' (early 20th century, mind) city, and his designs for the La Citta Nuova are exemplary. Perhaps only his early death at war stole from us a future 'architectural genius'?
There will be further posts on the topics of Futurism in and around northern Italy, as there have been many visits to the Trentino-Alto-Adige this year!
