Asilo Infantile Sant'Elia - G. Terragni 1936-1937

ASILO SANT'ELIA SANT ELIA TERRAGNI 1936 - 1937

02 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

942699 942676 942745 942675

ASILO SANT'ELIA SANT ELIA TERRAGNI 1936 - 1937

«Una

scuola bella, sana, chiara, luminosa, pulitissima creerà nel bambino, fin dai primissimi un senso naturale dell'igiene, una spontaneo predilezione per l'ordine e per la pulizia, una decisiva impronta di civiltà.»

Giuseppe Pagano (Costruzioni-Casabella, Pagano, 1940)

I

II

III

INTRODUCTION

REGIME AND

SANT'ELIA

RATIONALISM IN

KINDERGARTEN

SCHOOLS

IN COMO

III.a HISTORY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT III.b TRASFORMATION OF THE PROJECT III.c RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CONTEXT III.d CHARACTERISTIC OF THE BUILDING III.e STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION III.f THE INTERIORS

IV

V

COMPARISON

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BETWEEN WORKS

IV.a THE CONTRASTS WITH "CASA DEL FASCIO" OF COMO IV.b COMPARISON BETWEEN WORKS

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I. INTRODUCTION

L'Asilo Sant’Elia is a building in Como designed in 1935 and built in 1936-1937 by Giuseppe terragni. A project of light and shapes, low volumes and large windows to meet the needs of children.

«L asilo da “Sala «L’asilo Sala di custodia dei bimbi”,, assurge bimbi oggi alla dignità di Casa per una Grande Famiglia.

E della casa ha le doti di gioconda accoglienza, di scrupolosa igiene, di serena spiritualità. Le norme costruttive adeguandosi a tali esigenze si risolvono in una architettura che spalanca le pareti verso il sole, il verde, la luce, la natura.

Architettura Naturalista che dal razionalismo prende le forme della nobile missione sociale.»

Terragni, 1935, Relazione del progetto, (cit in), Baglione 1996, 455

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II. REGIME AND RATIONALISM IN SCHOOLS

During the Fascist period, the school played a very important role, teaching was the means to give the new generations the imprint of the regime.

In 1928 Mussolini these words:

pronounced

«The Italian school in all its grades and teachings is inspired by the ideals of fascism, educates Italian youth to understand fascism, to ennoble themselves and live in the climate created by the Fascist Revolution.»

Mussolini 1928, (cit in), Quattrocchi 2009, 92

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Rationalism, on the other hand, was identifiable with the desire to emancipate Italy in the modern sense, thus making it in line with the other European countries, more developed from the economic point of view: It should not be forgotten that fascist architecture had a propaganda purpose.

The main purpose of architecture was to channel popular taste into an aesthetic that was the faithful mirror of the fascist regime. The public buildings had to possess a strong formal and monumental identity.

The new schools had to be consistent with the school idea born from the reform Gentile (defined by Mussolini“the most fascist reform”) interpreted in a nationalistic and monumental ideological key, evidence of the regime’s idea of greatness: elementary geometric volumes, Flat roofs, cylindrical elements and openings of circular light generated metaphysical architectures.

1

The regime’s effort to leave tangible and celebratory footprints spread throughout Italy. This translates into a widespread realization of rural school buildings.

The architectural style, simple and without decorations, has been repeated on the national territory with few aesthetic variations and distributed.

The general principles dictated by rationalist architecture for children’s schools were few but clear:

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- Logical clarity from a structural and distributive point of view; - Maximum freedom of space from any constraint and obstacle; - Maximum opening of indoor spaces to natural lighting; - Attention to hygiene through the removal of decorative devices and any other superfluous components; - Search for volumetric simplification and uniformity of surface.

Quattrocchi 2009, 90

3

Cassandri 2015, 43-49

1. Ignazio Guidi, Scuola Elementare "Mario Guglielmotti", via Vetulonia, Roma, 1932-1933 2. Adalberto Libera, Scuola Elementare "Raffaello Sanzio, Trento, 1934-1936 3. Mario De Renzi, Scuola Elementare "Filippo Corridoni", Fano, 1932-1935

In an article in 1940, published in Costruzioni-Casabella, Pagano attaches a lot of importance to this theme stating that:

«Enorme è l’importanza importanza della scuola nella vita moderna. Ogni nazione, che ambisca ad un alto grado di civiltà, dedica la massima attenzione a questo problema.

Preparare le giovani generazioni ad una elevata dignità umana; dare ad esse una educazione nazionale; infondere i primordiali concetti della morale, della disciplina, del dovere: questa grande missione non si svolge soltanto nelle scuole elementari ma si inizia ancor prima negli asili. […].» [ ].»

Pagano 1940, 8

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III. ASILO SANT'ELIA OF COMO

In this case, even more clearly than in others, talk about architecture, of the object and the architectural space, without contemplating the emotional fact as original and then interpretative matter, makes the narration incomplete. When you enter a kindergarten the space always presents a particular tension, given by the proportions that house their adult body.

The measure of children seem to give the space the atmosphere that contemplates a’euphoric transience full of expectations: a clear tension towards the reception and protection.

Di Franco, Tognon 2010, 26

«Questo Questo asilo di Como, che l'architetto Giuseppe Terragni ha progettato nel 1932, e che venne costruito negli anni 1936 e 1937, rappresenta uno di quei capisaldi nella costruzione scolastica di cui può essere giustamente orgogliosa l'Italia fascista.» fascista.

Pagano 1940, 8

10

4. Cover of "Costruzioni-Casabella" n°150, 1940 5. Children in the recreation area 6. Use the internal garden 7. View of the executive office 8. View of the main facade with the entrance and the shelter

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III.a HISTORY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT

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The project of the Asilo Sant' Elia is commissioned by Damiano Cattaneo engineer Attilio Terragni and his brother architect Giuseppe Terragni.

Asylum was established in 1936, even though the project began earlier with three variants.

It should be said that already around 1925, the need to build a kindergarten had emerged.

At that time, the southern suburban area of Como had a severe shortage of school services, and the existing kindergarten had been converted into a high school.

The urbanization of that sector of Como, close to the railway line and the hill of Castel Baradello was mainly constituted by workers' quarters which arose from the early 1900s, so very recent.

Following the grievances of the inhabitants of the neighborhood, forced to send the children to a very distant asylum, in 1928 the Congregation of Charity began to look for suitable land for the construction of a new kindergarten.

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In a resolution of February 1929 reference was already made to a land between Via dei Mille and Via Alciato for which, in 1930, the engineer Attilio Cattaneo drew up a project, but that had no follow-up.

In order to confirm his appointment he had had to overcome pressures and contrasts because they wanted to impose on him other projects. Attilio had however informed him that he had entrusted the work to his brother.

«Per Per il vivo desiderio di dotare la città di Como di un Asilo d’Infanzia Infanzia di più razionali linee architettoniche, e forse per altre sue circostanze personali.» personali. » A. Terragni, 1931, Lettera a Damiano Cattaneo, (cit in), Baglione 1996, 455

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In 1932 Attilio Terragni delegated the project to his brother architect Giuseppe Terragni. The task remained, however, unsuccessful because of the lack of funds necessary for the construction. This first attempt compacts the volumes on two floors above ground, thus emphasizing the role of the ramp connecting to the open between the two levels and frees much of the plot to garden.

The volumes, compared to what will then be the final project, are more closed and the relationship between open and internal spaces more mediated.

The scarcity of funds that the administration had devoted to small works“resonant” as the endowment of the essential services of the popular areas, led to the possibility, through collection campaigns among residents, donations and charitable works, by the “Congregation of Charity”, that took care of children, to buy in 1935 the land at the intersection between via Alciato and via dei Mille.

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Moreover, 1935 was the year in which Attilio Terragni took office as mayor. It was in that same year that Giuseppe (together with his engineer brother) delivered the third and definitive version of the asylum, after a series of changes dictated by the uncertainties of the client regarding the business plan, the actual functioning of the school spaces, the size of the lot, which will be expanded, and the progressive refinement of the project that Terragni, in its continuous process of research, operates.

In reality, even the third version will only be partially realized, leaving the Asilo, as we can see today, in an even different form.

Baglione 1996, 453-464 Di Franco Tognon 2010, 24-26

9. Photo of Giuseppe Terragni 10. Photo of Attilio Terragni 11. The asilo Sant’Elia, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 20) 12. Shelter of asilo Sant’Elia, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 58)

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III.b TRASFORMATION OF THE PROJECT

The building studied by Giuseppe Terragni is located close to the existing buildings, so as to leave about two thirds of the area available to a garden, on which overlook the refectory, the recreation room and the classrooms facing south-east. One side of the building is parallel to via Alciato, while the area of services follows a broken trend to adapt to the inclined border of the lot.

The project appears to have been designed with particular regard to the building programme, the distribution aspects and the requirements of the Ministerial Regulation on School Buildings.

13. Plant study, 453)

Photo from (Ciucci 1996,

14. Floor plan of the three-room version, Photo from (Ciucci 1996, 454)

“Standards for the compilation of projects for the construction of school buildings� approved by Ministerial Decree of 4 May 1925, which were also taken into account in the preparation of the next project, they did not give precise indications regarding the exposition of the constructions; the orientation to south-east of the classrooms was instead indicated as optimal by Luigi Secchi, engineer operating in Milan.

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In this first hypothesis the idea of the solarium, already present in the project of a kindergarten for 200 children, that is the porticoed terrace with a structure with pillars and beams that recalls the House on the lake for an artist realized in the V Triennale of Milan, as well as the solution of the roof above the entrance and the difference in height between smaller body and higher body with covered terrace.

The plant with “C� rotated in relation to the lot appears for the first time in a sketch by Giuseppe Terragni not dated, in which some typological, distributive and geometric choices are fixed that will remain unchanged in the development of the project.

This is the only true sketch of study related to the asylum present in the ground archive.

15. Elevations and cross-section of the three-room version, Photo from (Baglione 1996, 454)

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16. Plan of the mezzanine floor of the version dated 5 August 1935, Photo from (Baglione 1996, 455) 17. Plant study, Photo from (Baglione 1996, 453) 18. Sections of the version presented to the municipality of Como on 10 March 1936, Photo from (Baglione 1996, 456)

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In the asylum version dated 17 September 1934 and later, the areas of triangular shaped result were intended for added bodies that escape the basic geometric order and play a mediating role between this and the batch of irregular shape. As regards the presence of geometric paths, the planimetric solution studied in the sketch can be read as a result of the interpretation of two rectangles, one of which is almost square, recalls for some aspects the basic scheme of the Casa del Fascio.

FIRST SOLUTION

SECOND SOLUTION

In the three-room version dated September 17, 1934, presented by Giuseppe Terragni on October 4, 1934 to the committee of patrons of the Congregation of Charity, these geometric patterns are returned with some adjustments: the plant was generated by the intersection of a rectangle and a square, inscribed in a larger square, the façade on via Alciato was brought on the same floor, that of the side of the rectangle, in order to obtain a double recreation that also served as an atrium and in which a patio with impluvium could be created.

A hoof surrounded the two sides of the building, while the service corps assumed a form that remained unchanged in the evolution of the project.

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16

The passage from the first to the second design version (dated August 5, 1935) to which reference is made a project report and a cost estimate dated March 7, 1935, was caused by further requests from the client: increase the capacity of the asylum and provide a space for changing. Terragni had to add a classroom and arrange in a single room the changing rooms that in the previous version had been placed outside of each classroom, then move the services in another wing, To assign to the showers the space of the rest room and transfer it to the upper floor, creating a loft which was accessed by a staircase against the north wall of the refectory.

Between the end of 1935 and the beginning of 1936 Terragni returned on the drawings of the asylum, studying variants that allowed a reduction in costs, but also introducing new “inventions” regardless of financial issues.

19. First solution, Photo from (Gregotti 1982, 43) 20. Second solution, Photo from (Gregotti 1982, 43)

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This led to the final version submitted in common on 10 March 1936 and accompanied by a budget (Estimate of expenditure for the construction of a kindergarten, 9 March 1936) specifying that they were excluded, although indicated on the drawings, the roof slab of the entrance hall, the ramp, the wing of the building to the west for the kitchens, whose realization was expected at a later time.

THIRD SOLUTION

Before the beginning of the works in July, following agreements with the client formalized by a letter of 23 May 1936, Terragni had to eliminate the walkway, the staircase and the intermediate floor with the showers. The renouncement of this part of the construction took place later than the decision to remove the ramp, the service body and the roof in front of the entrance. It is probable that Terragni intended to keep the greenhouse anyway, as it appears on the plan with study sketches, in which the position of the radiators is expected in the refectory along the glass wall, position that will remain unchanged in the building built, even if the glass wall will not be made.

FINAL SOLUTION 22

Ciucci 1996, 453-461

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«In this process, the functional requirements and limitations imposed for economic reasons are assumed and overcome in the creation of ever new“inventions new inventions”,, as well as characteristic elements of modern international language, The walls are completely glazed, the independence of the structures with respect to the collisions, the tape windows, are absorbed and reinterpreted in an original way.» way.

Baglione 1996, 461

21. Third solution, Photo from (Gregotti 1982, 43) 22. Fourth solution, Photo from (Gregotti 1982, 43)

III.c RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CONTEXT

The court of Asilo is open and oriented in the depth of the east-west body.

In this case the plant is released from the geometry of the lot for two reasons: to obtain a correct sunlight for a nursery school; to establish an immediate, direct relationship with the landscape, both built and natural (the hill with Tower of the Baradello).

L'Asilo Sant’Elia develops around a court, a place in the open, where children from the first games find in the profile of the hill with the Baradello tower the first authentic image of their belonging to the city.

Despite the diversity of the structures, Asilo Sant'Elia and Casa del Fascio have in common an ascensional logic: winning a point of view on the city and the landscape. The workable coverage of Asilo Sant’Elia is ideally set up as the beginning of a path to the coffin.

The Asilo Sant’Elia, which is at one level with a ramp leading to a part of the practicable cover, has a logic of ascension, winning a point of view on the city and the landscape. The workable coverage of the Asylum is ideally configured as the beginning of a path to the Baradello.

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«Notevole è anche la scelta di porre in sequenza ingresso, atrio e corte interna, dove l'atrio è usato come luogo per il gioco dei bambini al coperto, in continuità con la corte. [...] Il tutto costruisce un effetto di profondità con spazi collegati in una trasparenza che include il Baradello. Ma il tema centrale della trasparenza si estende a tutte le parti dell'asilo.»

Novati 2012, 173

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23. External view of the kindergarten 24. View of the courtyard, north side 25. The courtyard 26. External extension of the classrooms

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In the Asilo the movements and the movements of the walls, the vertical and horizontal light cuts are designed to establish a close dialogue between the interior and the exterior of the building. The internal court is in fact a large open-air classroom and giving it structures and rhythm is the system of pillars.

In another façade, the structure is coplanar to the stained-glass window, in the fourth it empties completely, it dematerializes to remain a simple sail, a frame that frames from a privileged point the internal court. Here a winding path, traced in the meadow, seems the starting point of paths that ideally start towards the coffin.

Novati 2012, 170-175

27. View of the internal courtyard 28. Castel Baradello seen from the ramp towards the roof-terrace, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 9) 29. External view of the kindergarten, Vintage photo, Beni Culturali Lombardia 30. Castel Baradello seen from the ramp towards the roof-terrace 31.

The outdoor rooms, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 16) 32.

View from from the inside

«L'asilo pare

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cercare le proprie relazioni non propriamente oltre il tessuto urbano che lo circonda, ma attraverso questo tessuto. [...] L'asilo si inserisce per addizione in questa rete di relazioni piuttosto disarticolata coinvolgendo nella trama, quali quinte naturali, i fianchi del Monte Croce, che cinge a sud la città con l'emergenza del Castel Baradello. La relazione forte che unisce i due episodi carica di tensione il contesto prossimo, come se l'asilo si facesse carico di costituire un recapito a valle della presenza del monte e della fortificazione.»

Di Franco, Tognon 2010, 28 28

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III.d CHARACTERISTIC OF THE BUILDING

The Asilo arises as an autonomous and isolated fact, inside a lot of angle that has the shape of an irregular quadrangular, with a strongly obtuse angle towards the streets.

The bodies of the factory are basically arranged according to a conventional C-plan, with the body of the changing rooms and the classrooms to east-southeast, that of the kitchens, the refectory and the services to west-north-west, and that of junction with the entrance, offices and “ricreatorio” south-southwest.

The “C” planimetric scheme, widely used, as well as the “L”, in the school building of the period, besides effectively solving the needs of the program, allowed the creation of different and separate open spaces, courtyard with space for games of sand, garden for cultivation experiences, service open space.

The adoption of a conventional planimetric scheme was however associated here with an unusual settlement solution, that is to the rotation of the building with respect to the lot, so that three angles were tangent to the boundaries of the area.

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«La costruzione si distende orizzontale, articolandosi in segmenti, ed evitan do in tutti i modi l'apparenza statica della massa pesante. L'accento è posto sull'elasticità dinamica e viva della struttura; i pilastri sottili sembrano autorizzati a vibrare; la costruzione intera è posata anzichè radicata nel terreno. Il vetro, nelle grandi finestrature che la destinazione dell'edificio esigeva, lascia trasparenti ed aerei i vuoti dell'ossatura. [...]

La costruzione si regge su elementi irreali come uno sfondo architettonico di Giotto.»

Labò 1947, (cit in), Gregotti 1982, 51

This solution does not seem to depend so much on the decision on the direction of the building with respect to the context, to affirm with the architecture a new order“, to oppose, as it had happened for the House of the beam, to the daily reality, represented the 'social housing of the neighborhood, a perfect object that rather dialogued with the green of the hill and the tower that stands there.

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The orientation of the building was established on the north-east-south-west helithermal axis, thus ensuring excellent solar exposure of the fronts and avoiding the two opposite conditions of exposure to the south and north.

The classrooms are oriented to the south-east with a clear front towards the garden.

Gregotti 1982, 47 Baglione 1996, 459 Pagano 1940, 10

34 33. Shelter of Asilo Sant’Elia 34. Relationship between context and Asilo Sant’Elia

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III.e STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION

The building is on one floor not very elevated on the ground to minimize the access stairs. At a later time, and only on the west side at the kitchen and services, the building will have another floor which will be occupied by the custodian’s quarters.

The height of the building is 5 meters with free light from floor to ceiling of 4.50 meters; this gives way to reach a "cubatura" for each classroom of 300 cubic meters.

A typical sign of the architectural mentality of Terragni is found in the frame of the building, a frame in sight in regular mesh consisting of a complex of pillars with rectangular section carried mostly to the outside of the building, to allow a free distribution of the walls in relation to the interior planimetric needs and the creation of entire glass walls.

The main entrance is protected by a spacious cantilevered porch, which has the function of collecting indoor relatives waiting for the same children who flock to the exit.

This entrance leads directly into a wide and luminous atrium that is part of a larger indoor environment that is the recreational.

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On the left side, there is the office of the Director and the medical examination room, equipped with its own toilets.

A large room, just to the right of the entrance, is used as a dressing room, where the clothes that children leave to wear aprons and sandals, are conveniently placed in special shelves.

The concept, that the asylum is to be considered as a home for a large family, advised to avoid long monotonous corridors, dislocating the main environments (classrooms, refectories, offices) around this atrium-which is in the center of the building.

From the recreation room, to the left, to the refectory of the children and, on the right, from this same recreation and from a clear disengagement of 3,25 meters wide to the 4 classrooms with external and internal walls folding so as to form with the recreation room, the hallway and the garden overlooking the said classrooms a single large space.

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35. The patio, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 48) 36. The garden to the east

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37. Detail of the shelter

38. Curtain system, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 37)

39. The shelter 40. Entrance hall

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The illuminated windows of the classrooms in the east area open on only one side, the longest, so that the pupils receive the light on their left.

Since the classrooms are backward from the perimeter of the building, an effective superstructure allows, with the protection of tents, to quickly place the entire school in the open.

At the indoor recreation is attached an outdoor recreation consists of a large porch, a terrace and a wooded lawn for games.

In spring and summer, the glass wall separating the two recreationers can be folded up by restoring a single body that is easily monitored.

A cantilevered staircase leads the children to the solarium, both from the interior and from the outdoor recreation.

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The part of construction free land is arranged and divided into lawn, pergola, garden, vegetable garden for cultivation experiences and square for sand games.

41. The courtyard 42. Curtain system 43. Internal view, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 38) 44. Internal view of the courtyard, Photo from (Di Franco Tognon 2010, 43)

Pagano 1940, 8-15

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III.f THE INTERIORS

In the kindergarten the furniture becomes architecture. The walls along the corridor are designed as containers which include the shelves and which are then suspended to leave room for the horizontal windows, measured frames towards the inner court.

Terragni never hesitates in interrogating the operation and aesthetic value of each individual element.

The architect places at the centre of his reflections the creative moment coinciding with practical purposes and concrete results. This attitude is recognizable in the attention he devotes to the design of the building elements, the technical details, as well as the furnishing objects.

In the kindergarten, as at the Casa del Fascio, Terragni has the ability to design everything. He makes pieces that can be mass produced.

The furnishing elements such as the “sedia Lariana”, designed for the Casa del Fascio, are here used and reinterpreted in “miniature”. Their conception of composition reflects the constructive principle that runs through asylum: the separation between the supporting structure and the worn elements.

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The structural tubular metal is a continuous element that, synthesizing its functions along the path, now holds the seat, now the backrest.

Particular attention should be paid to the design of the fixed furnishings, designed by Terragni in close relationship with the architecture.

The wooden windows and wardrobes with sliding doors and “finestra a nastro� which divide the classrooms from the corridor (made by the firm Colombo and Clerici,) are designed as one system which guarantees flexibility in the use of space thanks to the possibility of folding the partition walls of classrooms and part of the walls that separate these from the corridor, accentuating the aspect of visual continuity that dominates the whole building.

45. Ribbon window detail 46. View of the refectory 47. View from the outside of one of the opening classrooms 48. View of the recreation area

The decision to connect all the classrooms to form a single large space led Terragni to devise the board mechanism, made by Moretti firm of Como (only one remains in the asylum), partly white and partly black, that, with a pulley system, slides vertically behind a fixed panel with portraits of the Duce and the Sovereign.

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The result is a graphic game, based on the interlocking of two rectangles, a key figure in the design research of Terragni.

A graphic game is also based on the idea of placing under the "finestra a nastro" of the refectory a panel, no longer existing, for the display of children’s drawings and interchangeable decorations.

The wardrobe hangers, made by the firm Colombo and clerics on drawing of Terragni, complete the furnishings.

Baglione 1996, 459

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IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN WORKS

«Il libro di Stato, dello Stato fascista, dovrà essere un capolavoro didattico e tecnico; il suo contenuto deve educare gli adolescenti nella nuova atmosfera creata dal Fascismo e plasmare loro una coscienza consapevole dei doveri del cittadino fascista. [...] La scuola italiana in tutti i suoi gradi e i suoi insegnamenti si ispiri alle idealità del Fascismo, educhi la gioventù italiana a comprendere il Fascismo, a nobilitarsi e vivere nel clima creato dalla Rivoluzione Fascista».

Mussolini 1928, (cit in), Pagano 1940, 15

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IV.a CONTRASTS WITH "CASA DEL FASCIO" OF COMO

Reading the Asilo, starting from Pagano’s criticism, was based on the contrast between this building and the Casa del Fascio of Como.

Pagano, who severely criticized the Casa del Fascio in a famous article published in “Casabella” (Pagano 1937), as the result of a «ricercar letteraria dell’eccezionalità» published the asylum in 1940 on the pages of “Casabella”, presenting it as a cornerstone in the scholastic construction of Fascist Italy. The text that accompanies the images reads:

«Una scuola bella, sana, chiara e luminosa, pulitissima creerà nel bambino un senso naturale dell’igiene, dell igiene, una spontanea predilezione per l’ordine ordine e per la pulizia, una decisiva impronta di civiltà.»

Pagano 1940, 8

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The «disinvolta libertà planimetrica» and the «plastica fantasia» (Pagano 1940, 9) of Terragni can be reabsorbed to the architecture that privileges the character of «arte sociale».

This interpretation of the work of Terragni will have great influence on the subsequent critical readings: for a long time the Casa del fascio and the Asilo Sant’Elia will be seen as two opposing poles in the design research of the architect Como.

In 1947, Mario Labò interpreted the Asilo as a fracture in the work of Terragni, as «punto e a capo» necessary to avoid «l’intelletualismo puristico» of the Casa del fascio that could lead to the «insidie di una raffinata accademia» Labò 1947, 14-15, (cit. in) Ciucci 1996

In 1950 Bruno Zevi wrote about Asilo:

«La pianta non è più preuccupata di geometrismi, il dominio dell’orizzontale, dell orizzontale, la varietà funzionale delle superfici [ […], ], l’uso uso accidentale di piani liberi e i giochi lineari dell’incastellatura dell incastellatura a sbalzo del trasparente avancorpo, tolgono a questa opera la programmaticità […]» ]» Zevi 1950, 247, (cit. in) Ciucci 1996

Still in 1968 Renato Pedio read the asilo as «immediate contestazione» of the Casa del fascio, with respect to whose «equivoco politico», the «tema stesso» of the asylum becomes «affrancante» and results in a «tensione morale di perfetta autenticità»

L'Architettura 1968, 224, (cit. in) Ciucci 1996

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IV.b DIFFERENT TYPE OF COURTYARD

ASILO INFANTILE GIUSEPPE GARBAGNATI IN VIA NEGRINI, ASNAGO, 1935 CESARE CATTANEO, LUIGI ORIGONI

ASILO INFANTILE SANT'ELIA, COMO 1936 GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI

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IV.c RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR

ASILO OLIVETTI IVREA, 1939 LUIGI FIGINI, GINO POLLINI

ASILO INFANTILE SANT'ELIA, COMO 1936 GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI

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IV.d CONTINUITY OF THE CLASSROOM WITH THE OUTSIDE

CORONA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LOS ANGELES, 1935 RICHARD NEUTRA

ASILO INFANTILE SANT'ELIA, COMO 1936 GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI

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V. BIBLIOGRAPHY Pagano 1940 Giuseppe Pagano, L’Asilo infantile di Como, in Costruzioni-Casabella, n.150, 1940 Gregotti 1982 Vittorio Gregotti, Giuseppe Terragni 1904/1943, Rassegna, n.11, Cesarenani Editrice, 1982 Baglione 1996 C. Baglione [C.B.], Asilo Infantile Sant'Elia a Como, in Giorgio Ciucci, Giuseppe Terragni: Opera Completa (Documenti di Architettura), Electa, Milano 1997 Quattrocchi 2009 Luca Quattrocchi, Architetture per l’infanzia. Asili nido e scuole materne in Italia 1930-1960, Allemandi, Torino 2009

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Di Franco, Tognon 2010 Andrea Di Franco, Alisia Tognon, Asilo Sant’Elia.

Giuseppe Terragni, Maggioli, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2010 (Politecnica) Novati 2012 Alberto Novati, Aurelio Pezzola, Il mutevole permanere dell’antico. Giuseppe Terragni e gli architetti del razionalismo comasco, Araba Fenice, Cuneo 2012 Cassandri 2015 Eleonora Cassandri, L’evoluzione dell’edificio della scuola primaria italiana, tra architettura e pedagogia, Tesi di Laurea Magistrale, Politecnico di Milano, Polo di Mantova 2015