Casa d'Affitto Cattaneo - C. Cattaneo 1938-1939

CASA D'AFFITTO D AFFITTO A CERNOBBIO CATTANEO 1938 - 1939

03 HISTORICAL BOOK

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO Chiara Baglione, Matteo Moscatelli Olenka Esther Palomino De la Mata, Gemma Lonardi, Ginvra Rossi

Teachers Collaborators

GROUP 09 Andrea Moi Matteo Pasini Ionut Popovici Andrea Zuberti

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CASA D D'AFFITTO AFFITTO A CERNOBBIO CATTANEO 1938 - 1939

«Oggi

l'artista e l'architetto hanno, come non mai, raggiunto una posizione di responsabilità importantissima. Rinnovando l'arte e l'arte del costruire, si rinnova lo spirito civile. Realizzando la casa moderna, si definisce in certo quale modo l'uomo moderno.»

Alberto Sartoris (Gli elementi dell'architettura funzionale, 1932)

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INTRODUCTION

THE LOMBARD

CASA CATTANEO

EXPERIMENTS

A CERNOBBIO

IN RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

III.a HISTORY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT III.b TRASFORMATION OF THE PROJECT III.c THE SEARCH FOR UNITY III.d THE FINAL PROJECT III.e RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CONTEXT III.f STRUCTURE AND COVERINGS III.g INTERIORS

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COMPARISON

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

BETWEEN

SOURCES

WORKS

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I. INTRODUCTION

Casa Cattaneo in Cernobbio was built in 1938-1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War and still today its extraordinary formal complexity and its effect of great completeness is exalted.

The building occupies an entire rectangular lot within the historical centre of Cernobbio; overlooking the Regina street, at the point where it widens into the central square, it is set against a pre-existing house at the back.

It is on four levels, plus the cellar floor.

The frontal structure is composed of beams and pillars in reinforced concrete, the one behind, and solid brick walls.

The ground floor, completely glazed, is used for commercial activities.

The three upper floors are intended as a residence, with one apartment per floor, five rooms respectively on the first and second levels, four on the third; the last floor is backward and has a large terrace, bordered by a parapet of brick pillars and beams, with the front metal grating intended to form a shield of climbing green to ensure adequate protection from the sun.

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II. THE LOMBARD EXPERIMENTS IN RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

Parts of cities, figures never isolated, always complementary to the context, this is the first characteristic that we can recognize in many residential works, a way in which the new architecture integrates and combines with a particular "urban" character of the city, solid and severe, already formed with the Counter-Reformation, and then consolidated with Piermarini and the subsequent projects of the Ornato Commission in the neoclassical period.

The research conducted on urbanity at the beginning of the 20th century was already a tradition of almost unconscious work, with which architects naturally built the new city, dominating a rich repertoire of compositional instruments, learned in continuity with historical experience and gradually revisited with modern sensibility.

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The urban experimentation that the architects of the 1920 and 1930 had to face became an opportunity for reasoning on a larger scale than the single area of pertinence, with a tension that links the constructive detail to the urban form, the tradition of the urban residence with the typological experimentation of modernity.

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Muzio, Ponti, Portaluppi, Lingeri, Cattaneo and Terragni are the main protagonists of this "urban architectural season", but it is the houses that provide us with real lessons in composition and architecture, showing in this segment of time the consolidation of some residential types and their subsequent variation, as well as the slow refinement of the volumetric decomposition, aimed at recovering the ancient morphological variety that the nineteenth-century city of large size had flattened. The rich industrial bourgeoisie, previously more traditionalist, would show itself to be more modern in the "boom" years, and would pursue this task with pride, allowing clients, architects, companies and craftsmen to work together.

A new living space seems to have characterized Italian modernity, just think that both his magazines still bear traces of it in the title: "La Casa Bella" and "Domus".

Pierini Isastia 2017, 15-43

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«Nella casa all’italiana all italiana vi è grande distinzione di architettura fra esterno ed interno [ […] ] da noi ll’architettura architettura di fuori penetra nell’interno, nell interno, e non tralascia di usare né la pietra né gli intonaci né l’affresco; affresco; essa […] ] regola e ordina in spaziose misure gli ambienti per la nostra vita. […] [ ] La casa all’italiana all italiana è di fuori e di dentro senza complicazioni.

Giunge ad essere ricca con i modi della grandezza, non con quelli soli della preziosità.»

Gio Ponti 1933, (cit in), Cavadini 2005, 18

1. Palazzo and Torre Rasini by Gio Ponti 1932-1935 in Milan 2. Ca' Brutta by Giovanni Muzio 1919-1922 in Milan

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3. Casa d'appartamenti Conti by Piero Portaluppi 1933-1935 in Milan

The editor of the latter has continued to publish for decades the most advanced experiments and the most elegant houses, relaunching the idea of "Italian-style home" magazine through the taste of modernity.

It is also worth mentioning the diffusion role played by the manuals on modern dwellings, such as the one by Alberto Sartoris entitled "Introduction to modern architecture" or the one by Enrico Griffini, "Rational construction of the house", in which the analyses conducted on the space of living were marked both by surveys on the distributive characteristics of new dwellings, on the relationships between individual environments, on the role of new technologies and on the transformations of the ways of use, and by a strong formal will, a unitary research that held together architecture, furnishing, art and figuration.

Important attitudes that can be found in the design are to hide the complexity of the housing behind a single façade, often very uniform, which is controlled by a classical or logical order; or to use the volumetric spatiality of the housing to model the entire volume.

Pierini Isastia 2017, 15-43

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«Oggi l'artista e l'architetto hanno, come non mai, raggiunto una posizione di responsabilità importantissima.

Rinnovando l'arte e l'arte del costruire, si rinnova lo spirito civile. Realizzando la casa moderna, si definisce in certo quale modo l'uomo moderno. moderno.»

Sartoris

1932, (cit in), Cavadini 2005, 20

4. Sartoris, Copertina di “Introduzione all' Architettura Moderna”, Milano 1944. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 5. Griffini, Copertina di “La Costruzione Razionale della Casa”, Milano 1932. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 6. Ponti, Copertina di “La casa all’italiana”, Milano 1933. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 7. Pagano, Copertina del depliant della mostra “All’insegna della casa moderna”, Milano 1931. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

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III. CASA D'AFFITTO AFFITTO CATTANEO

«L'architetto L'architetto disegna e cancella intere pareti.

Spesso è così assorto nelle sue avventure da tavolo da disegno che si dimentica di pensare e studiare, come dovrebbe fare. Si dimentica di essere impegnato a disegnare un seme microscopico, che in futuro esploderà in un enorme edificio sulla strada (...)

Il progetto dovrebbe essere considerato solo una parte dell'opera.

Lo sviluppo di tutto il tema dipende da questo, così come dai materiali usati, dai movimenti di apertura e chiusura, dai riflessi nei riquadri.» riquadri.

Zevi 2007, 8

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III.a HISTORY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT

Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio was built in 1938-1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War and still today is exalted its extraordinary formal complexity and its effect of great completeness.

Cesare Cattaneo received the land from his parents as a gift on the occasion of his graduation in 1935. It was the first opportunity to try out a residential project on your own without having to worry about the timing of the project.

Being therefore the commissioner of himself, he defined not only the character of the future building, but also that of the entire building with respect to the square in front, giving him a face in harmony with the more articulated ambitions of rationalism.

8. Photography of Cesare Cattaneo 9. Cesare Cattaneo in Como on 1941. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 10. Building of “Dopolavoro Savoia�, photo of 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 11. Maquette of Casa Cattaneo, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

Although Cattaneo is the customer of himself, he makes the model, understanding it as an indispensable three-dimensional control tool.

And, based on the analysis of this model, he decided to articulate the penthouse more by adding a projecting volume on the prospectus overlooking the roof-terrace.

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The construction of the Cattaneo house remains for the architect the first and only experience realized on the theme of living in which to face all the complex values debated by the culture of rationalism.

One of the multiple problems, is the typology that is central in the question of the project of a residential building at low cost, inserted in a traditional urban fabric and of less building.

I firmly reject the camouflage process, often requested by local authorities, which would have led to an uncritical relationship based on the obvious of known things and known images.

Cernobbio has been transformed into a place of modernity through a pointer intervention that sacrifices nothing of the historical presences that form its center.

Cavadini 2005 Mariani Travi 2004

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III.b TRASFORMATION OF THE PROJECT

The realization of the Asnago kindergarten, several projects of important competitions, the study of the Camerlata fountain, will postpone the drafting of the first project to the spring of 1938.

Realized over two hundred drawings and sketches that accompany the development of the design process of Casa Cattaneo in Cernobbio, sketches on parchment paper, or on the back of envelopes and postcards as well as on the back cover of texts.

12. Plants of the second joint project, 1938.

Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 13. Perspective sketch of the building, project with five floors above ground level, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 14. Facade study of the second project with five floors above ground level, 1938, Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 15. Facade of the second project with spiral staircase, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 16. Detail of the cadastre map, 1898. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 17. Facade of the first project with six floors above ground, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 18. Axonometry, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

Thus, the first project of the house of rent six floors above ground, drawing laid out, almost as if it were a former tempore, without all the planimetric references.

The model remains ideally the Milanese income house, with obvious lowering of scale. The lot is in fact small: narrow and long, with a nice view on Via Regina but with a blind wall, the back one, and two sacrificial side views.

The building will be demolished leaving place to a“urban void� to be solved in a not easy lot between the building of Banco Lariano and the central hotel of Cernobbio.

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Compared to the three modifications of the project, however, it is significant to note that it is mainly an altimetric dimensional change.

The architect’s guiding ideas are all already exhibited in the initial draft. The concepts of measurement, harmony and proportion on which the plastic research is based are present globally since the initial studies of the project, readable in the rhythmic split of the facade Date from the retreat of the path of entry to the right, from the balcony straight and from the transport with a trilithic base.

The succession of fills and voids is generated by a clear matrix that remains unchanged in its founding principle, dictated and studied by the mesh of the pillars in compliance with Lecco’s assumption of the free plant.

In the course of the different graphic drafts of the plants and prospects of the Cattaneo house, the dimensional relationship is changed, but not the principle of the harmonious proportion underlying the project.

Cavadini 2005, 16-25 16

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«Insisto sempre nel dare molta importanza, nell'organismo dell'edificio, a quelle scaturigini d'armonia che sgorgano dal rispetto delle piccole, troppo spesso disprezzate, esigenze funzionali: una regola statica o costruttiva, l'uso più esatto di un materiale, le forme più adatte alla soddisfazione di tanti minuti bisogni pratici contenute nel tema. [...] se si lascia trascinare ad ingigantirle, gli accade di mettere l’una una in dissidio con ll’altra. altra. È la solita questione di misura, ossia di proporzione.»

Cattaneo,

1932, (cit in), Cavadini 2005, 22

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The second solution studied by the architect, with a height dictated by the five floors above ground, is officially presented on August 31, 1938.

The façade is divided into a ground floor at double height used as a shop, three levels higher than twenty an apartment per floor and a roof terrace overlooking the penthouse receding.

In this second project we note the will of Cattaneo to carry out a dimensional control with the heights of the building fronts side to the building, through a perspective together.

The great transparency of the building is achieved through the multiple openings provided on the walls“opening" compared to the difficult body of factory tightened by strong contiguity.

It is also interesting to note the presence of the garden roof that ends with a spiral staircase and architraved structures, a clear homage to Le Corbusier’s theories applied in the Savoye villa.

Cavadini 2005, 16-25

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The three floors used for housing have an identical consolidated type in the field of international housing: dining room with dining area and living room, atrium that gives access to the three bedrooms and two toilets.

Three days after the submission of the project, the municipality examines the project and Cattaneo is immediately informed that the building commission has raised objections.

The Via Regina di Como had long been declared an area subject to the supervision of monuments and fine arts of Milan. Therefore, the project had to be submitted to this body for further verification.

The forwarding of the file requires a more complicated procedure in which Cattaneo must also attach a photographic documentation.

On that occasion, the architect decides to revise the project in which it reduces the total height of the building going to eliminate a plan type.

The new building will be completely aligned with the masses of the existing buildings in the area of Via Regina that are three and/or four floors.

The total depth of the new building is reduced by about 2.50 m, which means the removal of a room in the standard plane, and the forward displacement of the staircase, with internal modification of some divisions of the rear rooms.

Cavadini 2005, 16-25

19. Facade of the third project with 4 floors above ground, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 20. Sketch of the third project, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

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III.c THE SEARCH FOR UNITY

The study of the building is based on geometric composition in accordance with the classical Euclidean rules.

Together with these aspects, the component of research and technological knowledge is equally important for Cattaneo, where "techne" is the art of knowing how to combine the technical-practical aspect with the creative one, in the entire complexity of the building.

Cavadini 2005, 28-31

«Un abitazione a «Un’abitazione livello intermedio tra la costruzione popolare e la costruzione di lusso; criteri entro i quali si deve concepire la sana casa dell’uomo dell uomo moderno.»

Cattaneo 1940, p. 65

«Le case brutte sono quelle dove gli elementi non riescono a fondersi in una proporzione, equivalgono a quello che in chimica dici di un miscuglio invece che una combinazione.

Nelle case belle tutto è invece legato da una sola proporzione che ne diventa legge lirica; e ti piacciono perché in esse vedi non i singoli elementi, che in sé non ti possono interessare come in una musica non ti possono interessare i suoni separati; […] ] L’importanza L importanza della sintesi sta nell’estensione nell estensione del suo dominio sulla materia.»

Cattaneo 1935, (cit in), Cavadini 2005, 16

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In this sense, the architect must lead his design attention towards that "synthesis" that he will achieve through a continuous rethinking and control of the various components of the project itself.

«Io intendo per proporzioni tutte quelle che scaturiscono dalla percezione spirituale delle forme; siano o no misurabili sulle coordinate della geometria euclidea.

Un’architettura, Un architettura, un poema, la scoperta di una nuova terra, la creazione di un sistema politico: altrettante sintesi di proporzioni, altrettante interpretazioni liriche dell dell’unità.» unità.»

21 Cattaneo 1933, 27

Cattaneo brings the golden number back to its Pythagorean origin, to its esoteric meaning, to the symbolic importance assigned in ancient times to irrational numbers.

In architecture, it is the golden section that represents the primordial research on the value of unity, since the numerical ratios obtained from the "golden number" become the mathematical reason underlying the apparent non-reason of matter.

According to Cattaneo, by adopting the rectangle that has a golden ratio between the diagonal and the minor side, an immediate perception of the presence of the golden ratio is visually achieved; a sort of principle that can be traced back to the elementary law that lives within us.

The geometric system, thanks to the golden ratio, is no longer between the two cathets of the rectangular triangle, but between the hypotenuse and the minor cathetus.

Cavadini 2005, 28-31

21. Detail of the comparison between two golden rectangles. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

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In the house in Cernobbio, Cesare Cattaneo applies this proportional principle of the rectangle as a control of the compositional unity of forms.

In the same years, the artist Mario Radice was also very sensitive to the themes of proportional study: in fact, adhering to Atlanticism since 1934: he never abandoned a thorough study of geometry in his compositions.

The application of the same golden proportion cited by Cattaneo, that is, based on the rectangle in relation to the gold with the diagonal and not between the two cathetes.

The collaboration between Radice and Cattaneo takes place only in the project of the fountain of Camerlata, in which functional and artistic solutions are inseparable, in a synthesis of forms and contents. Mario Radice has not added value to value but has contributed to the determination of a unitary and multidimensional value of the project, value that Cattaneo implements in his house in Cernobbio.

Cavadini 2005, 28-31

And it was Cattaneo himself who, on the occasion of the presentation of an exhibition in Radice, underlined the artistic consonance between painting and architecture.

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«Non si può immaginare la pittura e la scultura, anche astratte, in funzione decorativa, sotto pena di stabilire tra quelle arti e l’architettura architettura un assurdo rapporto di dipendenza. La pittura e la scultura andranno d’accordo accordo con l’architettura, architettura, nel senso di essere la traduzione in un linguaggio diverso dell’identico dell identico messaggio spirituale.»

Cattaneo 1933, 149

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III.d THE FINAL PROJECT

The final design of the Cattaneo house began in October 1939, with a pre-established planimetric development of 14.90 x 11.70.

The design process developed step by step, through many sketches that increasingly went to simplify the plan and strengthening the overall image.

The typical plan, generated by a specific quadrangular mesh matrix, keeps faith with the principles of golden proportioning, determining the points of placement of the pillars and load-bearing partitions.

The clarity of the composition highlights the choice of placing only one apartment per floor, arranged according to the criteria of better sunshine and ventilation, and a shop on the ground floor, completely transparent and back from the street.

The access to the shop is on the inside through a revolving door that invites you to enter without interrupting the design of the facade. The access path to the apartments is on the right side.

On the two floors, the domestic space is intended as a visual sequence of rooms and functions taken from the updated concept of living that appeared in many magazines of the time.

The flat roof with terrace, the play of projections and recesses that creates an area of protection of the building from the usual weathering by removing the gutters from the facade.

Cattaneo proves to be able to overcome the bureaucratic limitations imposed, succeeding in obtaining an even more essential and incisive image.

With the elaborate graphic of the central perspective (fig.

16), it is clear that the twin pillars are placed centrally in relation to the space of the inhabited surface and not in relation to the entire front.

A studied asymmetry is also present in the side elevations, where greater articulation and relevance are attributed to the left side structured in horizontal and vertical protruding partitions that contain tanks for green elements.

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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The monometric axonometry highlights the slender effect of the ground floor as opposed to the mass of the first and second levels with the horizontal distribution of the parapet across the width of the facade, but in turn divided into two bands to lighten it and let more light into the rooms overlooking the street.

The projecting body of the top floor takes on an independent visual energy, masking the roof garden and solving several technical problems related to the sunshine and the drainage of rainwater.

The search for a modulated asymmetry is another distinctive feature of Larian rationalism compared to Italian rationalism.

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25. Frontal perspective of the third project, 1938. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

The iteration of simple elements, of volumetric insurgents, the asymmetrical regularity and the abandonment of compositional centrality become new tools of design in the culture of modernity, which has prompted critics to speak of "second generation of rationalism".

26. Plants, 1939. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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ÂŤUna delle architetture piĂš complesse compositivamente che ci restano dal razionalismo, risolta non solo tecnicamente in modo ineccepibile, ma anche con un continuo affinamento proporzionale, alla ricerca di un risultato di estrema purezza ed assolutezza formale.Âť Cattaneo 1933, p. 35

III.e RELATIONS WITH THE CONTEXT

The architect pays particular attention to the pre-existing buildings: he only partially reconstructs a portion of the old building, for which he draws some sketches for the restructuring of the plan, while laterally he takes care of the presence of the Banco Lariano building to the east and, flush with the road, to the west of the Albergo Centrale, back with a small garden, of which Cattaneo ideally continues the route to the top floor of the building with a hanging garden.

The building is thus one of the pre-existing buildings, determining an interesting perceptive dynamic on Via Regina: the volumetric "game" is obtained through inhabited parallelepipeds, balconies and the "cage" of the loggia on the top floor, which define its composition even if the faรงade appears slender from the bearing pillars of the three floors.

The facade seems to be defined by two superimposed rectangular frames, slid laterally one to the other and then recalibrated, to accommodate the needs of the plan and also the different sizes of constraints that limit laterally the ground.

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The full and empty spaces of the building body create a dialogue with those of the surrounding urban space; the void of the side balconies responds to the full of the church bell tower, which is almost a hundred meters higher.

The volume of the building defines a relationship with the square in front, and especially with the nineteenth-century hotel in front.

The lookout, with its viewfinder, speaks of the territorial dimension and the scenic spectacle of the site near the lake, and this bears witness to the modern identity of Cernobbio as a holiday resort for an elegant public.

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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27. Cattaneo House in a photograph of 1939 when the work has just been completed.

Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

29. Cattaneo House in a photograph of 1939 when the work has just been completed.

Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

28. Cattaneo House in a photograph of 1939 when the work has just been completed.

Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

30. Study of urban inclusion, 1939. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio)

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III.f STRUCTURE AND COVERINGS

The new regulations of the period (November 22, 1937 reduction of the use of iron in reinforced concrete for "common dwellings" less than five floors high.

In September 7, 1939, prohibition of use for all buildings except public ones) conditioned the construction program of Casa Cattaneo in Cernobbio, which ended its construction in September 1939, where architect and engineer must carefully calibrate the use of iron still only marginally allowed in civil construction.

The building has the entire reinforced concrete skeleton, with the stairwell and side wall to the north. This structural solution allows to obtain significant cantilevered parts in the facade with the projecting effect of the roof-terrace structure of the top floor.

The advantages of this type of cladding are many: economical, minimum thickness, hard and resistant to water and dust, pleasant to the touch and bright compared to granular plaster.

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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The choice material to faรงade is architectural expressed by

of the type of be used in the linked to the language the building.

Cattaneo incorporates into the reinforced concrete casting a marble grit plaster covering of different colours, mixed with Duralbo cement and then polished on site.

The result is a unitary surface that takes on a warm whitish colour with the reflections of the marble fragments.

The grit is no longer a coating but is part of the load-bearing section, blending in with the reinforced concrete. This solution avoids the need to complete the facade with a marble slab cladding, which would have been very expensive.

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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31. Construction site in progress, 1939. Photo from (Cavadini, 2005, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio) 32. Curtain system located on the top floor of the house 33. Main facade of the house in relation to the urban context 34. Enlargement of the main facade composition

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III.g INTERIORS

Cattaneo, in addition to designing the building, also devotes himself to the study of the interior following his functional and rationalist thinking, designing construction details and individual elements of surrender.

The internal staircase is built in a small space with little light facing north. He creates a double ramp where the elevations of the steps are left empty so that the staircase is cut by many bright strips. The steps, with triangular section, are embossed in the perimeter wall and made of reinforced concrete covered with grit incorporated in the casting.

The separation between the ramps is equivalent to the mere thickness of the parapet, eight centimetres, which, being a single septum, creates a handrail that rises uninterrupted made of flat iron painted black.

The height of the handrail, lowered from 90 to 75 cm, is due to the study of the shadows with respect to the light source of the only window of the stairwell.

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The doors and windows on the ground floor are made of iron.

Cattaneo conceives a sliding system obtained thanks to ball bearings on rails, inserted in the ceiling, where the lower iron registers are landed on the floor and coplanar to the floor.

The windows of the upper floors are made of painted larch wood. The facade doors and windows are all sliding as they offer the possibility of accessing the balconies without creating encumbrance.

The dimensions of the windows exploit all the light of the room: 2.10m x 2.20m.

A similar system of sliding doors on the outside guarantees darkening.

Cattaneo also designs a window opening system for cleaning the windows of the side windows facing the flower boxes.

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35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. Details of the internal staircase with handrail

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Innovative is the solution of the corner windows in which it makes disappear in the room facing south the two windows; one on the left on the balcony, the other on the right on the outside of the side wall, creating a kind of outdoor porch.

To comply with safety measures, it adds a metal parapet which, lying in a bellows shape, follows the opening path of the window itself, ensuring that it looks out safely.

The structure of the doors on the first and second floor are made of masonite, wax polished with a sheet of Isocarver.

He creates two models: one with a matte surface buffered with sheets of masonite, and a translucent one with a glass mirror for the living area.

41. Internal room of the house with a view on the street and garden 42. Detail of the guidelines for the sliding of frames and windows 43. Detail of the handle for opening one of the windows

The doors on the top floor are made of insulated plywood, but coloured in the same colour as the wall.

As far as the flooring is concerned, Cattaneo uses black grit tiles in the service areas, while in the rooms he applies an experimental system in the 1930s: a coloured mixture of sawdust and magnesite that guarantees good soundproofing and looks very similar to linoleum.

The furnishings of the apartments are entirely designed and created by Cattaneo: the double bed with two bedside tables at the sides, the square wardrobes with ball handles, the table with the synthetic bread, the desk with the chest of drawers, the Buffett cabinet for the dining room with three sliding doors.

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44. Detail of the handle for opening one of the windows

Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN WORKS

«Cattaneo costruisce a ridosso della guerra forse l'opera più ardita, più forte di tutta l'architettura razionalista italiana. La casa a Cernobbio è il manifesto di un'architettura astratta, un'architettura nata dalla rivoluzione modernista di Mies, di Van Doesburg e di Le Corbusier, ma che ne rappresenta anche una declinazione italiana.

I flussi di aria e di vita la attraversano liberamente, e la casa sembra lasciare aperte le porte alle correnti della vita, del pensiero e dell'arte contemporanea.

Come non sentirla in questa casa, soprattutto in quei drammatici momenti, anche come un manifesto di libertà, come una speranza di trasparenza?

La casa a Cernobbio è la testimonianza di un ideale della giovane intellighenzia italiana di allora.

Non tutti gli architetti furono uguali, né tutti credettero ciecamente e acriticamente nel fascismo. La protesta può avvenire anche con la forte dissonanza di un'opera d'arte.»

Antonino Saggio (cit in), Cavadini 2005, 32-40

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IV.a THE USE OF THE ELEVATION AS AN ORDERING PRINCIPLE

CASA TONINELLO IN VIA PERASTO, 3, MILANO 1935 PIETRO LINGERI, GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI

CASA D'AFFITTO CATTANEO CERNOBBIO, COMO 1939 CESARE CATTANEO

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IV.b A FUNCTIONALIST APPROACH TO THE PROJECT

MAISON CITROHAN WEISSENHOF, STOCCARDA 1927 CHARLES ÉDOUARD JEANNERET GRIS, LE CORBUSIER

CASA D'AFFITTO CATTANEO CERNOBBIO, COMO 1939 CESARE CATTANEO

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IV.c TYPOLOGICAL VARIATIONS

CASA COMOLLI-RUSTICI MILANO 1938 PIETRO LINGERI GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI

CASA D'AFFITTO CATTANEO CERNOBBIO, COMO 1939 CESARE CATTANEO

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IV.d COMPARISON OF HANDRAILS

PALAZZO EIAR (ora SEDE RAI) CORSO SEMPIONE, MILANO 1939 GIO PONTI

CASA D'AFFITTO CATTANEO CERNOBBIO, COMO 1939 CESARE CATTANEO

37

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V. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cattaneo 1933 Cesare Cattaneo, Giovanni e Giuseppe.

Dialoghi di architettura, in Ornella Selvafolta (a cura di), Di fronte e attr.

Saggi di architettura, Jaca Book, Milano 1933

Trivellin 1996 Eleonora Trivellin, 1933. La villa razionalista.

BBPR, Terrragni, Figini e Pollini, Alinea, Firenze 1996 (Architettura e città) Mariani Travi 2004 Elisa Mariani Travi, Cesare Cattaneo.

Fede razionalista, Testo & Immagine, Torino 2004

Ciucci 2004 Giorgio Ciucci, Giorgio Muratore (a cura di), Storia dell’architettura italiana.

Il primo Novecento, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2004 (Storia dell’architettura italiana)

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Cavadini 2004 Luigi Cavadini, Architettura razionale nel territorio comasco, Provincia di Como Assessorato alla Cultura, Como 2004

Cavadini 2005 Nicoletta Ossana Cavadini, Casa Cattaneo a Cernobbio, Silvana, Milano 2005

Zevi 2007 Bruno Zevi, Cesare Cattaneo 1912-1943, Archivio Cattaneo, Como 2007 (I saggi) Pierini Isastia 2017 Orsina Simona Pierini, Alessandro Isastia, Case Milanesi 1923-1973.

Cinquant'anni di architettura residenziale a Milano, Ulrico Hoepli Editore, Milano 2017