The Reasons of a Form: Project Drawings of the Ridolfi Group for the Competition “Palazzo del Littorio” in Rome

Abstract

The competition for the Palazzo del Littorio of 1934 was held in Rome in the middle of the fascist period. The competition call requested the project for the grandiose Fascist Party Headquarters and permanent Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution. The palace was supposed to be located on Via dell’Impero which had been inaugurated in 1932. Mario Ridolfi, together with other Roman architects, including Ernesto La Padula, Vittorio Cafiero and Ettore Rossi, presents a building with a strong rationalist look but with an unusual rounded part. The panorama offered by the 1934 competition in Rome allows us to get to know interesting documents to understand Italian architecture and also the groups of associated professionals and institutions involved in that precise historical moment. The reasons for a captivating rounded shape, probably inspired also by the apse of the Basilica di Massenzio and the curvatures of the Colosseum, are to be found, no doubt, in the projectual stresses that oscillated between the needs of a dynamic modern metropolis and the monumentality of the ancient city. There are numerous drawings for the competition by Ridolfi’s group from which it is possible to interpret and, perhaps, understand the thoughts behind the design of the building, with particular attention and respect to the architectural and cultural debate that took place in those years. The study focuses on the analysis of the project drawings made for the architectural competition and on the interpretation of the lexicon in the various representation methods.