Italy

Throughout the twentieth century, architects in Italy have attempted to define the role of architecture in a capitalist economy and under diverse political systems, from the monarchy of the first seventy years since Italian unification, to the twenty-one years of Fascist control, to the post-World War II parliamentary republic. Early modern architecture coincided with a sustained drive to transform a country that was still primarily rural into a modern industrial state. At the same time, Italy holds some of the most prized architecture and art in the world, from antiquity to the baroque, packed into its dense historic city centres, which planners and politicians have negotiated as they struggled to cope with massive migration from the countryside to the city.^ Diane Ghirardo addresses these and other issues by considering modern architectural production in Italy from the late nineteenth century to the present day within a clear presentation of the larger historical, social and political contexts. She examines the post-unification efforts to identify a distinctly Italian architectural language, as well as the transformation of the urban environment in Italian cities undergoing indus