The Italian Colonial Appropriation of Indigenous North African Architecture in the 1930'S

BRIAN L. McLAREN THE ITALIAN COLONIAL APPROPRIATION OF INDIGENOUS NORTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE 1930'S . the native architecture of our Mediterranean colo- Fascist Italy. One of the crucial reasons behind the nies presents, for those who may know how to recog- appropriation of these local sources, he notes, was that nize it, all the necessary requirements from which to they were modern. This "modernity," according to deduce a perfect modern colonial architecture: ratio- Rava, was to be found in their suitability to climatic nality in planning, contemporary simplicity of form in conditions, their lack of superfluous elements, and exterior appearance, perfect adherence to the neces- their ability to harmonize with the colonial context.3 sity of the African climate, perfect harmony with the These indigenous constructions were also seen as an Libyan nature. When the frequent examples that they appropriate reference for a modern colonial architec- propose to us of vivid polychromy applied to affect and ture due to their connection with the Roman coloni- brighten up the nudity of the cubic masses and smooth zation of North Africa. In this discussion, Rava makes walls are added to these qualities, it will be shown that a distinction between the monumental ruins of sites the native architecture of Libya offers us all of the like Leptis Magna-which he referred to as being desirable elements for creating our present-day colonial "already dead," and having only "a purely archaeologi- architecture. cal-touristic value"-and the native architecture of the Carlo Enrico Rava, "Di un'architettura coloniale mo- region. According to this view, the so-called Arab house derna-Parte seconda" (1931). 1 was a reinterpretation of the Roman domus, inherit- ing both its classical plan and its central courtyard. To borrow from these indigenous forms was thus In an eight-part series of articles published in Domus borrowing from the surviving traces of Italy's own magazine in 1931 under the heading "Panorama del building traditions.4 Razionalismo," Italian architect Carlo Enrico Rava in- This essay examines the appropriation of local forms cluded a two-part essay, entitled "Di un'architettura by Italian architects working in the Libyan colonies coloniale moderna," in which he argued that the prob- during the 1930's, using the writings of Carlo Enrico lem of a modern colonial architecture was closely tied Rava and other architects and scholars as its primary to the more general question of architectural moder- point of reference. In this discussion, the crucial is- nity. Noting that there was an almost total ignorance sue is not merely the presentation of these indigenous of the problem of building in the colonial context in buildings in academic and professional publications, architectural discourse, Rava stated that Italian archi- but their re-presentation, that is, how they were in- tects working in the Libyan colonies should avoid the terpreted and understood and what motivated these direct copying of Roman models. He was also critical views. This appropriation will be studied in relation of the use of Moorish motifs in colonial architecture, to scholarly interest in the indigenous culture of this arguing their presence in this region could only be region; an interest that was largely a product of the found in the "false and monstrous" constructions built political policies developed by the Italian colonial in the years following the Italian conquest of 1911. 2 authorities in the early 1920's. The use of local forms Instead of following these historicist approaches, Rava will also be viewed against the backdrop of the con- asserted that Italian architects should adapt the forms temporary fascination with regional culture in Italy. and materials of the "native architecture" of Libya, This specifically metropolitan discourse will be exam- which had all of the desirable qualities for the cre- ined through the pages of Architettura e Arti Decorative: ation of a modern colonial architecture proper to a leading architectural journal that espoused an ap- ___I· _ _Isl ITALIAN COLONIAL APPROPRIATION OF INDIGENOUS NORTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 165 preciation of the indigenous traditions of Italy's vari- ITALIAN COLONIAL POLITICS AND THE ous regions. Finally, the Italian interest in Libyan ar- DISCOURSE ON LOCAL CULTURE IN chitecture will be studied in relation to the much earlier THE 1920'S preoccupation with local culture by the French in Morocco under General Hubert Lyautey (1912-25). The interest of Rava and other architects in the ar- In this effort, the full range of the Italian interest in chitecture of the Libyan colonies was, at least in part, the architecture of the Libyan colonies during the a product of the policies practiced by the Italian co- Fascist period will be examined. lonial authorities in this region. These so-called indig- This essay will argue that the writings of Carlo Enrico enous politics were initially developed under the Rava offer a quintessentially modernist appropriation guidance of Giuseppe Volpi, who was appointed gov- of the indigenous architecture of the Italian colonies ernor of Tripolitania in August of 1921. The first com- in North Africa. Indeed, in contrast with the stylistic ponent of Volpi's indigenous politics was a program references to Islamic decoration found in the to modernize the colony's public infrastructure and 5 arabisances of French colonialism, Rava proposed an improve its economy. As part of this initiative, the abstract assimilation of the forms and typologies of Italian authorities made a considerable effort to cre- the local architecture. The assumption was that, on ate a viable system of roads and public institutions that the one hand, this architecture was derived from would serve both military and domestic needs. The Roman precedents, thus providing a connection with improvement of the economy of Tripolitania was linked Italy's past. On the other hand, Rava noted that the primarily to agriculture; the Volpi government enacted laws that allowed private companies to claim unculti- indigenous forms of the Libyan colonies reflected a 6 modernist aesthetic sensibility found in their spare, vated land. The second component of these indig- simple forms and their responsiveness to climate. enous politics was the most crucial in fostering an interest in Libyan architecture by Italian architects. Ultimately, it will be asserted that by viewing Islamic art and architecture as a mere transmitter of ancient It called for the preservation of the Roman and Mus- lim historical patrimony of Tripolitania, with the aim and modern Italian culture, the interpretations of Rava of appeasing the local populations. This program and other Italian architects and scholars were reifying began with the creation of a commission to identify a Eurocentric view found in contemporary Western buildings and objects of historic, artistic, and archaeo- historiography. It will also be demonstrated that the logical interest. After an initial meeting in November dialectical nature of this theoretical formulation was of 1921, this group drew up a list that included two subject to its own internal transformations through the Roman monuments, the ancient castle and walls of course of the 1930's, during which time a theoretical the old city, thirteen Muslim religious buildings, and and ideological shift took place, from an abstract as- twenty-four private residences. The seriousness of the similation of these influences to a more scientific in- commitment of the Volpi administration to this res- terest in the indigenous culture of Libya. Rather than toration program was demonstrated through two leg- discuss this transformation as being only the product islative measures introduced in early 1922. The first of a mediation of modernity and tradition, I will ar- allowed for government regulations that pertained to gue that these approaches offer two distinct modali- Roman antiquities to be applied to the conservation ties of the same modernity; the first connected to its of the Islamic heritage of the Libyan colonies as well, aesthetic tendencies and interpretive procedures and and the second established the list of buildings to be the second to its historical consciousness. Through the preserved. 7 influence of a racially motivated political understanding These legislative changes resulted in a considerable of the Libyan culture that developed in the late expansion of the responsibilities of the Superinten- 1930's-an understanding that was largely developed dency to the Monuments and Excavations (Soprain- in "scientific" disciplines like anthropology and eth- tendenza ai monumenti e scavi) of Tripolitania. Prior nography-Libyan architecture was increasingly un- to the governorship of Volpi this group largely pre- derstood by Italian architects and scholars as a timeless sided over the Roman patrimony of the colony; how- repository of an essentially backward people. ever, beginning in 1922 it assumed responsibility for the preservation of Muslim historical sites. Among the __11_ 166 BRIAN L. McLAREN first projects to be undertaken under this mandate was the artistic production of local craftsmen-who were the restoration of the walls of the old city of Tripoli. seen to be practicing an "unclear and impure" inter- The first stage of this project was completed in 1923 pretation of Arab art-this office provided informa- under the supervision of the noted archaeologist Pietro tion, such as representative patterns taken from the Romanelli-who was

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