From ‘Casabella’ to ‘Arquitectura’ – The Italian influence on Portuguese Post-CIAM debate

Abstract

With the number 57-58 of 1957, the magazine “Arquitectura” declares the beginning of a new phase. In a country at the edge of Europe, far from the debate on modern architecture and marked by a dictatorship that has limited its contact with the outside world, this magazine (founded in 1927 and led by the ICAT group until 1957) represented the main diffusion medium of ideas and international contributions to the debate on modern architecture in Portugal. At the same time, the magazine represented a selection and filter of what was spread from the outside within the country. On this basis, the proposal for the "REVISITING THE POST-CIAM GENERATION" symposium intends to investigate the influence that the Italian modern architecture, conveyed by the italian magazines (for ex. “Casabella”) through “Arquitectura”, has had on the Portuguese post CIAM debate. “Casabella”, which together with the contemporary “Domus” represented the main Italian magazine leading international debate of these years, was well known by the editorial group of the magazine “Arquitectura” and offered an interesting source for the development of articles concerning Italian architecture. Indeed, the diffusion of the Italian projects and critical articles dates back already from the 40s with the publications of the articles by Ernesto Nathan Rogers and the projects of Giuseppe Terragni. On the other hand, it will be necessary to wait until 1972 for Vittorio Gregotti to publish the works of Álvaro Siza Vieira for the first time, beginning a season of renewed interest in Portuguese architecture coinciding with the end of the dictatorship (see V. Gregotti, Architetture recenti di Álvaro Siza, in "Controspazio", 9, Sept. 1972, 22-39).