On 21 July 1929 Adelchi Serena, podestà of L’Aquila, announced in the local newspaper, “Il Popolo d’Abruzzo”, the imminent start of work on construction of the Casa del Balilla, inserting the city into the vast building program being carried out by the Opera Nazionale Balilla. The building plans, drawn up in February 1929 by Luigi Cardilli, a young civil engineer in the municipal building department who was trained in Rome, corresponded fully with the indications given in Del Debbio’s manual concerning the requirements for the “Casa Balilla with gymnasium”. Architecturally, the adoption of the modernized Roman style was considered well-suited for the purpose, as it was proper for a work that was meant to reflect the new order, the Fascist or-der, that presumed a direct link with Rome, borrowing stylistic elements derived from Roman academism taken in particular from Del Debbio’s manual. The building confirmed in essence the attention towards the historicist language manifested by first-generation ONB works. The decoration of the facades and of some interior elements is in the Casa del Balilla made entirely through the use of artificial stone. This material enters heavily into the building and realizes the imitation of cut stone in all the elements conceived as stone. The aim of this paper is to investigate a constructive episode characterized by the decoration in artificial stone that although regarded as synonymous of aulic and “culturalist” architecture, if compared to the nascent renewal of Italian architecture, was still widely used in many buildings of the period.

La Casa del Balilla a L'Aquila e la pietra artificiale

BELLICOSO, ALESSANDRA
2016-01-01

Abstract

On 21 July 1929 Adelchi Serena, podestà of L’Aquila, announced in the local newspaper, “Il Popolo d’Abruzzo”, the imminent start of work on construction of the Casa del Balilla, inserting the city into the vast building program being carried out by the Opera Nazionale Balilla. The building plans, drawn up in February 1929 by Luigi Cardilli, a young civil engineer in the municipal building department who was trained in Rome, corresponded fully with the indications given in Del Debbio’s manual concerning the requirements for the “Casa Balilla with gymnasium”. Architecturally, the adoption of the modernized Roman style was considered well-suited for the purpose, as it was proper for a work that was meant to reflect the new order, the Fascist or-der, that presumed a direct link with Rome, borrowing stylistic elements derived from Roman academism taken in particular from Del Debbio’s manual. The building confirmed in essence the attention towards the historicist language manifested by first-generation ONB works. The decoration of the facades and of some interior elements is in the Casa del Balilla made entirely through the use of artificial stone. This material enters heavily into the building and realizes the imitation of cut stone in all the elements conceived as stone. The aim of this paper is to investigate a constructive episode characterized by the decoration in artificial stone that although regarded as synonymous of aulic and “culturalist” architecture, if compared to the nascent renewal of Italian architecture, was still widely used in many buildings of the period.
2016
978-88-86638-33-3
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11697/112626
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