Piacentini and Unitary Architectural Directions for Italian Cities

For Piacentini, the beauty of the ancient city did not come so much from single architectural works but from the urban environment as a whole. There is a need to overcome architectural individualism and search for a unity of composition in order to achieve this beauty. This essay explores selected urban projects of Piacentini aimed at the Italian cities of Brescia, Torino, Genova, Trieste, Milan and Rome and his purpose to achieve a unitary architectural direction. The essay underlines the convergence between Piacentini’s works and the need of Fascist regime to be represented by architecture during the thirties.