Architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909–1969) was a towering figure in twentieth-century Italian architecture. Through the work of his collaborative firm (Banfi Belgiojoso Peressutti Rogers, or BBPR), who were responsible for many of the most influential Italian projects of the time, and through the editorship of publications such as Domus and Casabella, Rogers ensured a lasting influence on the field. However his contributions have been largely neglected by scholarship, or more recently have had only superficial understandings attached to them.
Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book will re-assess Ernesto Nathan Rogers’ cultural legacy. It will be the first comprehensive, critical work on Rogers in English, and will emphasize Rogers’ vision for the role of the architect as a public intellectual, as well as his commitment to pursue a renewed path of professional and cultural research within the “Modern Project.”
The book also discusses Rogers’ willingness to challenge academic classicized monumentality and the fascist administration to emerge as a leader of Italian design in the aftermath of World War II; his focus on urban design as well as planning; tradition in modernity; history and vernacular culture; and national identity, to bring a detailed account of the work and thought of Ernesto Nathan Rogers to an English-speaking audience for the first time.
With a foreword by Kenneth Frampton.