By David Escudero
Neorealist Architecture: Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy is the new book by David Escudero, published by Routledge and awarded with a Graham Foundation grant. The book, beautifully illustrated with more than 120 images—most of them unpublished—explores the links between architecture, filmmaking, and the built environment in postwar Italy (194X–5X) seeking to ascertain whether, and how, neorealism manifested itself in architecture. It is the first book specifically oriented towards building an idea of “architectural neorealism”. Hinted at in those years, the concept was internalized by Italian architectural history, but transfers between neorealism—as an aesthetic and ethic—and architecture—as one potential medium of its embodiment or expression—are still not fully understood. Therefore, the book provides an in-depth discussion of the concept of “neorealist architecture”, demonstrating that the connection between both terms is not meaningless.
Table of contents
Foreword by Andrew Leach
Introduction
Part I. Towards a Concept: Neorealist Architecture
Chapter i. A Climate Beyond Filmmaking
Chapter ii. Political Celebration, Formal Failure
Part II. A Neorealist Making in Architecture
Chapter iii. The INA-Casa Program as a Vehicle for Neorealism
Chapter iv. Atmosphere, Mood, Mindset… Translated Into Bricks
Part III. Neorealist Images of Architecture
Chapter v. Architecture Within the Imagery of Neorealism
Chapter vi. Figuranti of a Shared Aesthetic
Epilogue. The Scene of Human’s Life.
Author
Dr. David Escudero is an architect and Assistant Professor at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), and a member of the UPM Cultural Landscape Research Group (GIPC). His research topics focus on the intersections between theory of architecture, landscape, and representation. He was a Fulbright fellow at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, at the gta Institute of the ETH Zürich, and at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome. His book Neorealist Architecture: Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy has recently been awarded with a Graham Foundation grant. Also, he has authored articles in Journal of Architecture (RIBA), Architectural Theory Review, and OASE Journal for Architecture, among others.
