Florestano Di Fausto | |
|---|---|
 Florestano Di Fausto (c. 1930) | |
| Born | (1890-07-16)16 July 1890 Rocca Canterano,Rome, Italy |
| Died | 11 January 1965(1965-01-11) (aged 74) Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome;Sapienza University of Rome, Rome |
| Occupation | Architect |
Florestano Di Fausto (16 July 1890 – 11 January 1965) was an Italian architect, engineer and politician who is best known for his building designs in the Italianoverseas territories around theMediterranean. He is considered the most importantcolonial architect of theFascist age in Italy and has been described as the "architect of the Mediterranean".[1] Uncontested protagonist of the architectural scene first in theItalian Islands of the Aegean and then inItalian Libya,[2] he was gifted with a remarkable preparation combined with consummate skills, which allowed him to master and to use indifferently and in any geographical context the most diverse architectural styles, swinging betweeneclecticism andrationalism. His legacy, long neglected, has been highlighted since the 1990s.
Born inRocca Canterano, a town near Rome, Florestano Di Fausto studied in Rome, first getting theLaurea in Architecture at the Accademia di belle Arti, and then (1922) in civil Engineering.[3] His first work, from 1916 to 1923, was the architectural part of the tomb ofPope Pius X inSt. Peter's Basilica in theVatican, a work correct but cold.[3] It was followed by the design of theCalvary and of the chapel ofrelics ofPassover in the Roman basilica ofSanta Croce in Gerusalemme, inaugurated in 1930 but finished only in 1952. From 1924 until 1932 he was a technical consultant of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), erecting, modifying or restructuring a great number of Italian embassies, legations, consulates, culture institutes and schools in Europe, Africa and the Americas.[3] His most important works in this respect are the Italian embassies inBelgrade andAnkara, and thelegation inCairo, where he collaborated with Melchiorre Bega, one of the most important Italian interior architects of the 20th century.[4] At the same time, he became known for proposing several projects for the center of Rome, as those for the PiazzeColonna anddel Parlamento, for theLungotevere Marzio and for the new seat of theBanca Nazionale del Lavoro inVia Veneto,[3] but all of them remained on paper.[5] Between 1926 and 1928 Di Fausto, who had good connections withBenito Mussolini, designed thecity plan and the main buildings ofPredappio Nuova.[3][5] The Italian dictator had decided to move his hometown, Predappio, after a landslide that was menacing its survival. The idea behind the work of Di Fausto here was the creation of an idealized country village, through an "urban design of devotional kind",[3] in accordance with the many pilgrims visiting each day the birthplace of the "Duce", but in harmony with Mussolini's ideal of a rural Italy and his will to show his modest and simple roots.[5] The affordable houses for the inhabitants displaced by the landslide, the renovation ofPalazzo Varano, the post office building, the Food Market, theSanta Rosa primary school and kindergarten, the doctors' house, the expansion of the cemetery of San Cassiano and the homonymous church and the tomb of the Mussolini family constitute the stages of his work in Predappio.[6]
In 1923, Di Fausto started to work for the governor of theItalian Islands of the Aegean,Mario Lago.[3] This was a liberal and far-sighted diplomat, the first civilian governor of the islands after their occupation in 1912 during theItalo-Turkish War, who favored the peaceful coexistence among the different ethnic groups of the islands: Greeks, Turks,Ladinos and, since 1912, Italians.[3][4] His first work inRhodes was the city plan, finished on 29 January 1926: he chose to retain almost totally the medieval walled city, isolating the ancient walls and introducing respect zones, and reused paths and alignments of the ancient plan byHippodamus of Miletus for the new quarters.[3][4] The new city was erected outside the walls, south of the west bank of the Mandraki harbour, and was conceived as agarden city, an urban model which was highly fashionable in Italy in those years.[3] The main road of the new town, south of the Mandraki, was christenedForo Italico, and there Di Fausto designed the main buildings, preferring an eclectic style mixingByzantine,Ottoman,Roman Renaissance,Venetian,Knight Chivalric and local elements.[3] This style was well suited for the multi-ethnic population of the island.[3] The most important works among the many which he designed in Rhodes city are: thePalazzo del Governo (today the prefecture building) built in 1926, inVenetian Gothic style, with a white and pink stone façade, resembling theDoge's Palace in Venice; the neo-Renaissance post office building of 1927; the Catholic cathedral of Saint John of the Knights (now Evangelismos Greek orthodox church), rebuilt among great quarrels in 1924–25, whose plans were reconstructed using engravings of theChurch of St John of the Collachium, located within the walled city and destroyed in 1856; theGrande Albergo delle Rose, now Casino Rhodos, built with Michele Platania, but "cleansed" of all itsdeco embellishments in the late 1930s by GovernorCesare Maria de Vecchi; above all, theMercato nuovo (Nea Agora, "New Market"), the center of the new city, an irregular polygonal structure enclosing the fishmongers pavilion, which possesses an unquestionable Oriental style.[3][4] Besides Rhodes, Di Fausto was active also inKos, where his most important works are thePalazzo del Governo (1927–29) and the Catholic church of theAgnus Dei (1927), built withRodolfo Petracco, with central plan and a bell tower tapered on the façade, considered his best work in theDodecanese; inKastellorizo, where he erected the Delegate's Building; inKalymnos andLeros.[3][4] Since 1926 ever increasing differences of opinion with the governor pushed him to gradually abandon his commitments in the Aegean.[3] The quarrel ended in 1927 with a legal dispute, where Di Fausto showed that during his service in the Dodecanese he had designed no less than fifty buildings—houses, public buildings, churches, barracks, markets, schools—thirty two of them already built or in construction in 1927.[7] To keep this high pace of work, the architect worked also during his frequent boat trips between Italy and Rhodes.[7]
At the same time Di Fausto, whose prolificity was impressive, was continuing also his work in Italy, above all in Rome—where he owned a thriving studio—and surrounding regions, where, in the second half of the twenties, he designed several housing complexes: among them, those for the civil servants of the MAE, inVia delle tre Madonne, characterized by its Romanbarocchetto style.[3][5] In 1926–28 he designed on the hill of Montelarice nearLoreto the villa of the famous tenorBeniamino Gigli, a pretentious and luxurious mansion, whose interest lies in its plan with a central body and two tilted lower wings, a concept that Di Fausto would re-use several times in the future.[5] On 21 February 1930 he had a bad airplane accident in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, being rescued together with his crew after 12 hours by the shipCitta' di Tripoli.[3] In the thirties, his most important works in Italy were theCentrale del latte (dairy plant) inPescara (1932), where Di Fausto abandoned his eclecticism in favor of a cleanfunctionalism, theCasa del contadino ("Peasant house") in the new city ofLittoria (today's Latina) and the militarysanatorium inAnzio (1930–33).[8] The latter complex, placed in scenic position in a pine wood in front of the sea and near the ruins of the Villa ofNero, is a good example ofItalian rationalism.[3] Here is particularly noteworthy the chirurgic tuberculosis pavilion, with a central body containing the operation room, whose semicircular outer wall is a single glass façade.[3] From this body diverge two long angled wings which host the patients.[3] The Peasant house in Latina, with a central tower and strutting wings, was demolished in the sixties.[8] The dairy in Pescara, also demolished ın 2010 amidst much controversy and legal fıghts, was a three-body building upholstered withClinker, whose central body façade had a treble glass wall.[9] The last two buildings were commissioned by the agriculture ministry, which gave to the architect several other works, like the organization of the national exhibition of wheat, reclamations and fruit picking, held inVilla Borghese in 1932, and the design of the main seat of the Fascist Agricultural Worker Union (C.F.L.A.), inCorso d'Italia, Rome, in 1936–37. In that case, Di Fausto radically altered a pre-existing edifice, transforming it in a typicalstile littorio building.[3] between 1937 and 1939 he erected in Via Agri, Rome, theVillino Staccioli, a classical example of Italian rationalism.[3] The Stacciolis, a family from theAbruzzi, were the owners of a building company which executed many among the architect's works in Italy and abroad.[3]
In the same period, he was active also inAlbania (at that time practically an Italian protectorate), where he replacedArmando Brasini. There he designed the new city plan forTirana, with the city center and the monumental department buildings around Skanderbeg Square, inNeo-Renaissance style with articulate angular solutions andgiant orderfascias (1932).[5] In the same years he designed also theRoyal Villa of Durrës (1928–30), with a central tower and two wings,[5] and the royal villa atScutari (1928), both works being commissioned by KingZog I.[3]
In 1932, Di Fausto became "consultant for architecture" of the city ofTripoli, the capital ofItalian Libya, beginning the last creative phase of his professional life.[3] In 1934, the replacement ofPietro Badoglio withItalo Balbo, the brilliant and impetuousRas ofFerrara andMaresciallo dell'Aria, as Governor-General of Libya, boosted his work.[10] The two men soon came to understand each other well (Balbo was so confident in Di Fausto to give him in 1938 the task of designing the city plan of his home town's center), and Di Fausto, nominated by Balbo chef of the "Commission for Urban Protection and Esthetics", with the main task of designing Tripoli's city plan,[11] started to produce a stream of projects for Libya's capital: there the architect outlined the plan ofPiazza Castello (the area around theRed Castle) and of the square around theArch of Marcus Aurelius, in theMedina. Moreover, he erected public buildings, churches, markets, hotels, totaling fifteen works in few years.[10] His masterpiece in Tripoli is the multifunctional centerAl Waddan (hotel, swimming pools, casino, theater), characterized by a long row of arches parallel to today'sSharia al Fatah promenade.[10]On 15 March 1937, with a lavish night ceremony in the presence of Mussolini, theArch of the Philaeni nearRa's Lanuf was inaugurated, marking the border betweenTripolitania andCyrenaica along the newly builtVia Balbia (today'sLibyan Coastal Highway).[10] In all these works, the architect resumed his Greek experience, mixing with great virtuosityarabisant andnovecento elements.[10]
Until the outbreak of World War II, Di Fausto extended his activity all over Libya, building hotels in pre-desertic towns asJefren andNalut, residences for officers inTobruk, Menina andCastel Benito, various typologies of buildings inBenghazi,Misrata andDerna, and eight out of thirty-two rural villages, foundation towns for Italian colonists.[10] In all these works Di Fausto displayed his professional maturity, mastering the design of the most different types of buildings and design scales.[10] The peak of his African work was the design of the Libyan pavilion at theMostra delle terre Italiane d'oltremare ("Exhibition of the Italian overseas territories") held inNaples in 1940.[10] His position as Balbo's "court architect" was sealed by the placement of his portrait near the Governor's in thefrescoes painted by the Ferrarese Achille Funi on the vaults of the Church of Saint Francis in Tripoli, another work of him.[10]
In 1940, Di Fausto took also a short detour from his main activity, designing thescenography of the historic movieThe King's Jester (Italian:Il re si diverte), directed byMario Bonnard.[12]
During the war years, Di Fausto abandoned his fascist position approaching theAzione Cattolica, until at the end of the war he was elected representative for theDemocrazia Cristiana both in theConstituent Assembly and in the first Legislature.[3] In 1953 he left his party for theMonarchist National Party.[3] During these years, he condemned current architectural developments. In a speech in parliament about theVenice Biennale of Architecture he defined Italy's banal cosmopolitan architecture after the war as "an insane desire of new things" and said thatabstractism,existentialism andrelativism were "manifestations of putrid matter".[3] His most noteworthy works during those years were the plan for the post-war reconstruction ofSubiaco, the restoration of the cathedral of Sant'Andrea Apostolo of the same town, the design of the General House of theCistercians on theAventine Hill in Rome, and the restructuring of the Sanctuary ofMontevergine, built in an aridneo-Romanesque style.[3] Finished in 1966, the complex shows a return to the traditionalism of his early days.[3][13] Di Fausto died in Rome in 1965. He was member of theAccademia di San Luca and of thePontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon.[3]
Florestano Di Fausto was the most important Italian colonial architect of the Fascist regime.[14] In the 1920s, a group of young architects, most of them rationalists, found inspiration for their works in Mediterranean architecture.[15] They reevaluated the traditional buildings ("architecture without architects") of southern Italy, the Greek Islands and the North African coast, since they thought that right in those places nestled the sources of architectural rationality.[15] This new concept, themediterraneità (mediterraneity), was born in the rationalist movement, but later also other groupings, like the "Neoclassicists", took possession of it.[14] Themediterraneità, which in a first phase was connected by the rationalists withHellenic architecture, with its purity of lines and design, was later used by Fascist propaganda as ideological justification for its Mediterranean expansion, and was coupled with theRoman architecture.[16]
In this context Di Fausto, who was not a rationalist, laid hands on this concept. In his only writing, published in 1937, he states: "Architecture was born in the Mediterranean and triumphed in Rome in the eternal monuments created from the genius of our birth: it must, therefore, remain Mediterranean and Italian."[17] His talent and his political connections allowed him to put this theorization into practice. Thanks to his many works in Albania, Libya, the Italian Aegean Islands and Italy itself, it has been defined "Architect of the Mediterranean" perantonomasia.[1] His adhesion to the concept ofmediterraneità is also reflected by his steady necessity to come in contact with theGenius Loci of the places where he was going to operate: he wrote, in the same writing cited above: "Not a single stone was placed by me without having filled myself in advance with the spirit of the place, so as to make it my own".[14]
His work resulted in a continuous balancing between traditional and modern architecture, eclecticism and rationalism.[14] He was "an unsurpassed model of professional architect who, thanks to a remarkable preparation combined with consummate skills, was able to master, and to use indifferently, and in any geographical context, each possible style: from Moorish to Venetian Gothic, from Renaissance to Novecento, reducing even the rationalist language to anotherModern Style."[18] Due to his steadily swinging between traditional and modern styles, he was unremittingly attacked by the two opposite fronts of colonialist architects, the "neoclassicists" and rationalists.[19] His work, long neglected after the war, has been rediscovered since the 1990s, and since then his legacy has more and more become the object of study, although a general catalog of his works is still missing.[13]
_03.jpg)
.JPG)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
