Rationalism

Term applied to architecture of the 20th century that is characterized by a scientifically reasoned but ethical attitude to design, accompanied by a desire to adopt the most rational possible built form in relation to structure and construction. It evolved in reaction against 19th-century eclecticism and the apparent failure of Art Nouveau to replace it, while admiration for the imaginative use of materials and techniques in engineering works of the same century led to a concern with the integrity of style in relation to construction. The term encompasses much of the architecture of the MODERN MOVEMENT and INTERNATIONAL STYLE but has often been confused with FUNCTIONALISM, to which similar origins and implications are often ascribed. In addition to its more general architectural meaning, the term has been applied in a special way to Italian modernism of the 1920s and 1930s (Razionalismo) and, after 1966, still more specifically to the architecture and urban design movement TENDENZA initiated by Aldo Rossi.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

An Italian movement in tune with the progressive tenets of Modernism in the 1920s and 1930s, Rationalism initially centred on the activities of Gruppo Sette, an architectural group founded in 1926, the members of which included Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini, and Giuseppe Terragni. Their designs were characterized by the manipulation of clean, abstract forms harnessed to new materials and the potential of contemporary technologies. They hoped that their progressive aesthetic might become the official style in Mussolini's Fascist Italy although, in part, their commitment to an international rather than national outlook may have led to the failure of such aspirations. As a result the Rationalists won few major public commissions, although a number of privately funded works attracted favourable critical attention. These ranged from work on a modest scale such as Figini, Pollini, and Luciano Baldessari's Craja Bar (1930) and Eduardo Persico and Marcello Nizzoli's Parker shop (1934) in Milan to the clean steel and glass factory (1937) for Olivetti at Ivrea by Figini and Pollini. The opportunities for significant exposure of Rationalist work was largely restricted to the pages of progressive architectural and design magazines such as Domus and Casabella and the displays at the Milan Triennali where such Functionalist designs as those of Franco Albini's Room for a Man were shown at the 1936 Triennale. Despite the political difficulties of pursuing an international avant-garde aesthetic, there were instances where Rationalist work was commissioned in the cause of Fascism, most notably Terragni's House of Fascism (1933-6) in Como.