Destructive creation: fascist urban planning, architecture and New Towns in the Pontine Marshes

TY - JOUR

T1 - Destructive creation

T2 - fascist urban planning, architecture and New Towns in the Pontine Marshes

AU - Caprotti, Federico

PY - 2007/7

Y1 - 2007/7

N2 - This paper examines the construction, architecture, planning and design of New Towns in the Pontine Marshes, south of Rome, in the 1930s, analysing the discourses which contributed to their shaping and settlement. It focuses specifically on the plans and architectural characteristics of the city of Sabaudia as the best example of fascist urban utopias in the area. The paper also moves beyond an analysis of architecture and planning to consider the human beings who were slated for occupying what were viewed as ideal, utopian fascist spaces. This is done through an investigation of Italy's ruralization and internal colonization policies, which aimed to tackle a 'demographic problem' defined through recourse to statistics and sociological analysis. These policies were animated by colonists, and their families, chosen by the regime's institutions to take part in the Pontine Marshes project. Italian fascism's structuring of a new urban environment, which stretched from grand systemic designs to the measurement of mosquito net dimensions in colonial houses' bedrooms, justified the attempted social and political control of fascism's experimental urban subjects.

AB - This paper examines the construction, architecture, planning and design of New Towns in the Pontine Marshes, south of Rome, in the 1930s, analysing the discourses which contributed to their shaping and settlement. It focuses specifically on the plans and architectural characteristics of the city of Sabaudia as the best example of fascist urban utopias in the area. The paper also moves beyond an analysis of architecture and planning to consider the human beings who were slated for occupying what were viewed as ideal, utopian fascist spaces. This is done through an investigation of Italy's ruralization and internal colonization policies, which aimed to tackle a 'demographic problem' defined through recourse to statistics and sociological analysis. These policies were animated by colonists, and their families, chosen by the regime's institutions to take part in the Pontine Marshes project. Italian fascism's structuring of a new urban environment, which stretched from grand systemic designs to the measurement of mosquito net dimensions in colonial houses' bedrooms, justified the attempted social and political control of fascism's experimental urban subjects.

KW - Italy

KW - fascism

KW - new towns

KW - architecture

KW - planning

KW - nature

KW - TECHNOLOGICAL NETWORKS

KW - ITALIAN FASCISM

KW - CITY

U2 - 10.1016/j.jhg.2006.08.002

DO - 10.1016/j.jhg.2006.08.002

M3 - Article

SN - 0305-7488

VL - 33

SP - 651

EP - 679

JO - JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

JF - JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

IS - 3

ER -