The Census of Italian Architectures from 1945 to the present, promoted by DGCC, is focused on a whole category of architectures between post-World War II and the current times. Atlas of Contemporary Architecture aims to focus on a selection of the architectures surveyed by the Census, presenting specific thematic itineraries illustrated with original photographs. The selection was carried out according to a criterion of distribution on the national territory and intended to represent each region. This principle sometimes meant excluding masterpieces, to give space to interesting regional realities, in the spirit of the project’s purpose, which intends to describe all of Italy.
With the aim of an open and implementable instrument, we propose to prompt a more effective “network” perception of modern and contemporary Italian architectural heritage. In this way, the selected architectures, linked together according to a new interpretative thread, allow a deeper knowledge of their meanings.
Through this approach, we intend to establish a new preservation culture: in fact, the combination of several architectures in a thematic itinerary allows reciprocally evaluating their formal, technological, urbanistic or landscape qualities, with better results compared with their individual analysis, discerning them in comparison, developing a conscious historical evaluation, perceiving the Italian architectural heritage in a more unitary and effective way, and comparing protection guidelines and procedures.
The references contained in the tags at the bottom of each post allow the visitor to build different, but interconnected, critical paths. The user can still enjoy a free research. Finally, the map tool is useful for those wishing to visit the sites.
ITINERARIES
These thematic layouts host more than a hundred architectures testifying to the excellence of the Italian architectural culture of the late twentieth century. The titles of the themes aim to be communicative. Inspired by the productive revival of the 1950s and 1960s, they mark the difference from “what we were” to “what we are”. Without referring to specific territorial areas, but to the entire national territory, they focus on the unifying characteristics of architectures belonging to distant geographical contexts.
The proposed itineraries should be read as open and illustrative. They are open in the sense that, with reference to the prevalent character highlighted by the itinerary, they can be enlarged. They are illustrative in the sense that they do not exclude the many other methods of interpretation offered by the late twentieth century heritage of Italian architecture. All the works in the general itineraries were the subject of a photographic campaign.
STORYLINES
These are complementary thematic layouts, often illustrated through a single author’s production, which embody the referred theme in an exemplary way. They too are illustrative in nature and indicate alternative directions of interpretations, still not intended to be exhaustive. We offer them as secondary access keys to the site contents, using archive materials. They illustrate how, from a wider narration (“general itineraries”) we can then derive other crossed narrations, particular stories, that reinforce the perception of the themes already illustrated in the main itineraries.
THE MAPS
These navigation tools allow the user to build a personal local itinerary. Using the maps, it is possible to locate the architectures included in the five thematic itineraries as well as those mentioned in the ten stories. From the maps, through a link that appears in the side flag window, it is possible to go back to the individual files.
The tags at the bottom of each post identify the main authors, the city, the region and the function. Through these references, it is possible to recall a list that unites a group of architectures under the same tag, navigating by author, location, type or time window.