Neorealist Architecture | Casa Italiana Zerilli / Marimò

Neorealist Architecture

Book Presentation
Thu, 03/23/2023 - 6:30pm
Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy
book cover

The event will also be broadcast live on our
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Book presentation
Neorealist Architecture
Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy

(Routledge, 2022)

by
David Escudero
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

The author in conversation with
Joan Ockman, Yale University
Alfo G. Aguado, NYU

Event co-sponsored by the
​Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts

In ENGLISH

After World War II, there was a wave of films made in Italy that came to be labelled "neorealism" and are now regarded as pivotal to world film history. But was neorealism limited to cinema, or did it spread to other spheres of the arts? If so, was there a neorealist architecture?

Neorealist Architecture: Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy (Routledge, 2022) explores how neorealism manifested itself in architecture by studying the links between filmmaking and the built environment of postwar Italy (194X-195X). Terms such as "neorealist architecture" or "architectural neorealism" circulated during this period and were used by scholars in the following decades, but they were concepts adopted ad hoc and popularized post hoc. Though internalized by Italian architecture historians, the specific transfers between neorealism —as ethics and aesthetics— and architecture —as potential medium for its embodiment— have remained largely unexplored.  Illustrated with over 100 black and white images and archival plans, this book is the first to tackle this topic and provides a new in-depth discussion of the concept of "neorealist architecture."