ABSTRACT
Why did colonial-architectural discourse emerge so late in Italy, half a century after the state first acquired colonial territory? Undoubtedly the single most important factor is that until 1920 Italy had no architectural training for professionals apart from engineers and architectural historians,3 or any separate institutions for architects alone – in other words, no collective professional sphere in which to define such a specialized issue as architecture in the colonies. But the profession soon “caught up.” The same active lobbying that gave rise to the new architectural education system also brought a new stature to architects, beginning in the 1910s and culminating in the 1920s and 1930s. The profession’s new consolidation through architecture journals, meetings, and a hierarchy of union and sub-unions, thus coincided with the rise of Fascist rule; indeed, the profession’s new importance was in part a function of the financial support and public approbation it obtained from the government.
