Rural modern. Themes and context

Abstract

The idea of modernity is often associated to cities where town planning and architecture contributed to the rationalization of space.  However, the seemingly consequential correlation between backwardness and rurality cannot be taken for granted.  In fact, throughout the 20^th century, rural modernisation subverted the physical and settlement geography of many regions into different geo-political situations. The role of architectural design in these processes should be focused on a case-by-case basis. In this perspective, the present issue encompasses some significant case studies: from the settlement of Asia Minor refugees in 1920s Greece to the well-known ruralisation of Fascist Italy. In Portugal, as in Italy, rural architecture offered a contextual counterpoint to the dictates of the Modern Movement.  In the countries of the Soviet Bloc, instead, collectivization brought about urbanization of the countryside, enacted by prefabricated residential blocks and collective buildings, at least until the 1956 thaw. The Seventies and the Eighties marked a watershed: a new phase of experimentation particularly evident in the large administrative centres of the collective farms, designed to provide an architectural expression of local identity.