ABSTRACT
This section confronts the problem of “continuity or crisis” in the architecture (and architects) of the fascist ventennio, a theme that is arguably its most essential. The framing of modern Italian architecture around the issue of continuity is due, in large part, to the re-emergence of Casabella magazine, with the subtitle “Continuita,” in January 1954 under the directorship of interwar Rationalist architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers. An important part of the theme of continuity in modern Italian architecture, is that the fascist era generated a substantial body of built work. One of the interesting facets of this period of continuity or crisis is that, as one might expect, the response on the part of architects was not uniform. As explorations of the theme of “continuity or crisis,” the section offers a range of responses, examining the physical continuity of buildings or the transmission of ideas and continuity of people between the interwar period and the postwar period.
