Terragni and Sartoris in Como, Capital of Italian Rationalism

While rationalism is a historical architectural movement, rationality in architecture remains a concept that continues to provoke questions. Italian Rationalism of the 1930s sought to combine functional, constructive and economic requirements with a spiritual quest for balance, embodied in the harmonious arrangement of geometric forms. What would rationality in architecture look like in the contemporary context?

Alberto Sartoris was born in Turin in 1901 and would go on to become one of the most controversial figures in Italian modern architecture as an architect, theorist, critic, and notably, a polemicist. He received his training at the École des beaux-arts in Geneva and soon exhibited a significant interest in descriptive geometry, the development of compositions consisting of elementary geometric volumes, and the study of classical architecture. This he pursued through drawing, employing techniques of copying and interpretative reconstruction.

Giuseppe Terragni, born in Meda in 1904, just a few years after Sartoris, would emerge as the undisputed protagonist of Italian architectural Rationalism. He graduated in Architecture and perspective decoration from the Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore in Milan, the future Politecnico, in 1926. From a young age, he demonstrated a strong inclination for the study of plastic arts, past architecture, and a keen interest in painting.

During the years when Terragni was studying in Milan, Sartoris worked in Turin. Here, in addition to his historical mentor Annibale Rigotti, he also interacted with avant-garde artists and patrons keen to support the development of modern art and architecture in Italy. Sartoris seemed to explore different yet related paths by engaging with both the Futurists and Rationalists, as well as Felice Casorati, while Terragni early on chose a more clearly defined path. He participated in the founding of Group 7 in 1926 with Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Ubaldo Castagnoli, and later, Adalberto Libera. Together, they gave rise to Italian architectural Rationalism, a movement to which Terragni remained faithful throughout his relatively short life.

In this context, amid discussions on the fundamental themes of renewing Italian architecture, Terragni and Sartoris met in 1927. They later drifted apart for a few years due to differences in managing Italian participation in the International Congresses of Modern Architecture, CIAM. However, they reunited in the mid-1930s in an intense communion of ideas, intentions, and professional developments.

Tracing the history of the relationship between Terragni and Sartoris over just over fifteen years offers a chance to contemplate significant moments in the history of Italian modern architecture. This exhibition seeks to fulfill this purpose. It takes us on a narrative journey, beginning with an inevitable allusion to the architectural and urban visions of Antonio Sant'Elia from Como. It then moves on to explore events associated with CIAM and the extensive editorial and journalistic work carried out by Sartoris. This leads us to later examine the work produced by both architects during their professional activities from 1937 to 1943, when noteworthy projects were developed: the designs for the working-class satellite neighborhood in Rebbio and for the Council Houses on via Anzani in Como.

This is the period of the most intense intellectual and professional relationship between Sartoris and Terragni. Yet, this is also the most terrible period in Italian 20th-century history, characterized by the promulgation of racial laws and campaigns of hatred that violently involved the reflection on art and architecture, leading many protagonists to be stained with guilt and historical errors, some of which were paid for with their lives.

The ominous shadow cast by these events, however, must not obscure the architectural idea that Terragni and Sartoris leave us – an idea that brings forth reflections of evident relevance.

They fostered an architecture born of necessity, translated into structures composed of strictly necessary elements assembled according to a rigorous logic inspired by the functioning of machines. An architecture that must, however, also and above all aspire to satisfy the spiritual need for harmony in humans, to the point of including beauty among the essential and unavoidable functions of an architectural work.