Ambientamento

The "modernist" revolution of the 1920s and 1930s imposed a paradigm shift on the linguistic codes of architecture. The "artisanal" dimension of building typical of pre-modern culture, and the "essential and unique characteristics" of places and territories, has gradually been replaced by a new and homogenizing architectural language, linked to serial industrial production and codified, within of a few decades, with the term International Style. The choice to make a clean slate with respect to traditional construction practices, if on the one hand was fueled by the perorations imposed by industrial and capitalist culture, on the other hand suffered significant resistance from quite a few architects who undertook to underline the he importance of History and Tradition in modern building culture. This resistance found a decisive expression in Italy through the critical positioning of some designers who, starting from the 1920s, felt the need to express, in the name of the concept of "environmentalism" (or "setting"), a strong concern towards of the introduction of modernist linguistic codes. The full paper summarizes the fundamental stages of the evolution of the concept of architectural environmentalism, from proto-rationalist culture to the present day; passing through Giovannoni, Fichera, Rogers, Team X and the critical point of view of some masters of Postmodernism. The objective, ultimately, is to understand the meaning and relevance of the "word".