ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the impact of American models and ideas on Italian architecture and society between the 1920s and the early years of the Marshall Plan, with a focus on the fields of industry and production. On April 3, 1948, the American President Harry Truman approved the European Recovery Act, the bill that instituted the European Recovery Program (ERP), later known as the Marshall Plan. The end of the Second World War rendered evident pre-existing questions and, the Marshall Plan seemed to offer the opportunity to fulfill long- coveted ambitions on the European camp. With his writings about the rationalization of production, Francesco Mauro played a crucial role between the 1920s and the 1940s in raising Italian awareness about American industrial systems. The relations between Italian and American design and building cultures were not formally altered after the Second World War but the context within which they took place changed.
