The Responsibilities of the Architect: Mass Production and Modernism in the Work of Marco Zanuso 1936-1972 Shantel Blakely Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Shantel Blakely All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Responsibilities of the Architect: Mass Production and Modernism in the Work of Marco Zanuso 1936-1972 Shantel Blakely The topic of this dissertation is the significance of industrial design in the work of architect Marco Zanuso (1916-2001), who lived and practiced in Milan, Italy. As a leading architect, as well as a pioneer in industrial design in the early postwar period, Zanuso was a key protagonist in the relationship of postwar Italian architecture culture to industrialization and capitalism. He is therefore an indicative figure with respect to the broader shift from Modernism to Postmodernism in architecture. Whereas previous studies of Zanuso have addressed either his architecture or his industrial design, this study traces the mutual influence of these practices in Zanuso's early work. The four chapters examine a selection of his projects to reconstruct their relationships to concurrent discourses in Italian art, architecture, and industry. In addition, the chapters show how these projects can be understood as conceptual and practical benchmarks along the way to the eventual realization of a continuum of design from small to large scale, and especially an architecture in which the serial nature of mass production would be explicit. The first chapter, whose topic is Zanuso's relationship to Italian modern architecture between the two World Wars, relates his embrace of mass-production around 1946, in essays on prefabricated architecture, to his student work in the 1930s and to his first projects during Reconstruction, emphasizing the influence of the Gruppo 7, Giuseppe Pagano, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers. The second chapter, whose topic is architecture and art, looks at Zanuso's mural-covered Viale Gorizia building and other projects, and at his involvement in the "synthesis of the arts" discourse with adherents of the Italian arte concreta ("concrete art") movement, including Gillo Dorfles, Mario Ballocco, Bruno Munari, and Gianni Dova. The third chapter identifies the mass- produced apartment complexes on Via Laveno (1963) and Via Solaroli (1965) as Zanuso's first realized examples of industrial architecture, and places these in the context of the broader assimilation of industrial production methods by artists and architects in Milan around 1960. In addition, the third chapter examines the portrayal of Zanuso in the press in relation to the emergence of the architect- designer as a public figure in Italy and the identification of the industrial product with consumerism. The fourth chapter, whose topic is Zanuso's association with Olivetti, considers his factories for the company, designed between 1953 and 1972, in relation to the corporate program conceived by Adriano Olivetti, with Leonardo Sinisgalli and others, to intercalate rational design and planning into the fabric of civic and social life, from the object to the territorial scale. By scanning Zanuso's early work through these topics, this study demonstrates that he drew imperatives from various sources. These investigations show that his industrial design practice proceeded in tandem with his incorporation of production into architecture, in keeping with his longstanding ideas about the architect's responsibility to maintain civility in the use of technology. The argument of the dissertation is that, while Zanuso's interest in design reflected a wider fascination with technological capacities, it was also a means by which he gained access to practices of mass production that he went on to apply to architecture and interiors as well as to furniture and appliances. Through the examination of his projects and archival documents, the chapters demonstrate that Zanuso's work belies the often-repeated generalization that Italian industrial design was a reflection of the consumerism and commercial culture that arrived in Italy after the War, and overtook Milan during the 1960s. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1. MARCO ZANUSO'S FORMATION IN MILAN, AND IN ARCHITECTURE DISCOURSE, 1936-1950 15 Debates Over a National Architectural Style Under the Fascist Regime 19 Student Projects: Symbolic Buildings for Fascism 30 The Technical and Bureaucratic Architecture Culture of Wartime and Postwar Milan, 1938-1951 53 Villa Scotti and Prefabrication: Marco Zanuso's Concepts of the Home and Mass Production, 1942-1946 58 CHAPTER 2. THE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE, 1945-1955.91 Architecture as a "Chassis" 92 The "Industrial" Aesthetic in Arte Concreta 110 Stile Industria (1954), a Program by Architects for Industrial Design 137 Zanuso's "Selected Examples": Art in the Industrial Product 152 CHAPTER 3. THE ARCHITECT/INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE CULTURE AND POPULAR CULTURE, C.1960. 160 A "Crisis" in Industrial Design 166 Apartment Complex on Via Laveno: Prototype for Residential Architecture by a Mass-Produced Building System 179 Information Economy and Consumer Culture 192 The Interior as an Image of a Way of Life 202 i CHAPTER 4. FACTORIES FOR OLIVETTI: INDUSTRIALIZED ARCHITECTURE, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, AND THE CIVILIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY, 1953-1972. 229 Industrialized Industrial Architecture: Factories at Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Scarmagno-Crema-Marcianise 236 Design in Industry, Civility in Industrialization 248 Civility, Publicity, and Olivetti Product Design 266 Zanuso's Factories as Product Design 281 CONCLUSION 293 FIGURES 322 BIBLIOGRAPHY 412 APPENDIX A - PRINCIPAL PROJECTS DISCUSSED 426 APPENDIX B - ZANUSO'S OFFICE LIBRARY 427 ii LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Palazzo Castiglioni, Milan (1903). Giuseppe Sommaruga. Bottoni, Antologia di edifici moderni in Milano (Milan: Editoriale Domus, 1954), 31. 1.2 Contratti store, Milan (1903). Luigi Broggi. Meeks, "The Real Liberty of Italy," 125. 1.3 Seat of the Federation of Milanese Fascists, Milan (1936-1938). Piero Portaluppi. Entrance to Sacrario. Molinari, ed., Piero Portaluppi la linea errante (Milan: Skira, 2003). 1.4 Sacrario dei Caduti, Milan (1938). Exterior. Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci, Mario Tevarotto, Luigi Mattioni, Gianluigi Reggio, Mario Salvadé, with Lucio Fontana. Entrance view. Casabella costruzioni 157 (1941): 45. 1.5 Sacrario dei Caduti, Milan (1938). Interior and detail of relief by Fontana. Casabella costruzioni 157 (1941): 45. 1.6 Sacrario dei Caduti, Milan (1938). Plan. Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci, Mario Tevarotto, Luigi Mattioni, Gianluigi Reggio, Mario Salvadé, with Lucio Fontana. Casabella 157 (1941): 45. 1.7 Arengario, Milan (1938-1956). Plan. Piero Portaluppi, Giovanni Muzio, Enrico Griffini, Pier Giulio Magistretti. Irace, Giovanni Muzio 1893-1982 Opere (Milan: Electa, 1994), 125. 1.8 Arengario, Milan (1938-1956). Plan and elevation. Piero Portaluppi, Giovanni Muzio, Enrico Griffini, Pier Giulio Magistretti. Irace, Giovanni Muzio 1893-1982 Opere (Milan: Electa, 1994), 12 1.9 Arengario [unbuilt project] (1936). Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci, Augusto Magnaghi, Mario Terzaghi, Pier Giulio Trolli. Il Vetro 14 (Jan-Feb 1937). 1.10 Torre Littoriale [unbuilt project], Milan (1935). Ignazio Gardella. Casabella 90 (1935):28. 1.11 Casa del Fascio (1932-1936). Giuseppe Terragni. Photomontage on façade (unrealized). Marcianò, Giuseppe Terragni Opera Completa 1925-1943 (Rome: Officina, 1987), 94. iii 1.12 Albergo Rifiugio [unbuilt project] (1938). Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci. Casabella Costruzioni 127 (1938):2. 1.13 Villa Scotti, Premeno (1947-1947). Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci. L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui 41 (Jun 1952):60. 1.14 Villa Scotti, Premeno (1947-1947). Section. Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci. Section. Fondo Marco Zanuso, FMZ MZ MIC 001 015. FMZAMM. 1.15 Villa Scotti, Premeno (1947-1947). Kitchen, plan (top) and section (bottom). Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci. Detail from project drawing. Fondo Marco Zanuso, FMZ MZ MIC 001 011b. FMZAMM. 1.16 Casa Ideale [unbuilt project] (1942). Marco Zanuso. Domus 176 (1942): 328. 1.17 Casa e Natura [unbuilt project] (1946). Marco Zanuso, Giovanni Albricci. Domus la casa dell'uomo 211 (1946): 2. 1.18 Casa Barbiere e Castana, Castana (1946). Ignazio Gardella. Ignazio Gardella (Milan: Edizioni di Comunità, 1959), 81. 2.1 Office Building on Via Senato, Milan (1947). Marco Zanuso, Roberto Menghi, with Lucio Fontana. Street façade. Domus 242 (1950):1. 2.2 Office Building on Via Senato. Detail of sculpted door handles. [photographs by author.] 2.3 Apartment Building on Viale Gorizia (1951). Marco Zanuso, with Gianno Dova. Street view. Edilizia Moderna 47 (1951): 43. 2.4 Apartment Building on Viale Gorizia (1951). Detail of façade. Edilizia Moderna 47 (1951): 43. 2.5 Residential-era housing architecture in Italy. "L'Italie" [Special Issue] Architecture d'Aujourd'hui 41 (1952): 39-40. 2.6 Models of apartment buildings. Architects V. Monaco and A. Luccichenti (above). Marco Zanuso and (painter) Corrado Cagli (below). "Architettura e pittura." Edilizia Moderna 47 (1951): 47. 2.7 "Santoflex" Office interior, Milan. Marco Zanuso. Domus 273 (1952): 25. 2.8 Showroom for Societa' del Linoleum, Milan (1952). Marco Zanuso, with Gianni Dova, Mario Ballocco. Plan. Fondo Marco Zanuso. FMZ MZ MIC 008. FMZAMM. iv 2.9 Showroom for Societa' del