Ignazio Gardella, Roberto Menghi, Luigi Vietti Architetture per il Mediterraneo

The studies brought together in the volume published by Electa focus on the work of three architects who donated many materials to the CSAC-Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione of the University of Parma, and who have had a different critical reception.

While Ignazio Gardella (1905-1999) has been studied for some time now and the collection preserved at the CSAC is almost fully known and catalogued, a first critical analysis has been reached for Roberto Menghi (1920-2006), whose collection is examined in this work, but Luigi Vietti (1903-1998), because of the enormous amount of material still to be analysed, is still largely awaiting study.

Three important figures of Italian architecture straddling the period of World War II, who established themselves on the national scene and whose work continues to offer insights for both architectural historians and designers. Capable of significant professional achievements in the course of their careers, Gardella, Menghi and Vietti are united by an identifying and recognisable architectural vocabulary and a marked propensity for typological conception that clearly expresses the characteristics of architecture in the Mediterranean basin during the twentieth century.

The contributions collected in the volume, and enriched by an important set of illustrations, make it possible to bring out and underline a substratum of themes and values that Italian architects of the recent past are still able to develop and transmit to the culture of contemporary architectural design.
The essays, by young researchers from different European countries, make it possible to enhance and carefully interpret the memory of the archival materials preserved at the CSAC and published extensively within the volume.

The volume collects the proceedings of the conference with the same title held in November 2022, and repeats its structure divided into sessions by individual figures, Gardella, Menghi and Vietti, being organised in accordance with the principle of “reports” by young foreign researchers and “papers” by professors responsible for research and international guests.