Benbuilding – Mussolini’s Architecture with Jonathan Meades

Benbuilding – Mussolini’s Architecture with Jonathan Meades

Jonathan Meades goes in search of Mussolini’s architecture and finds an amazing variety of styles and buildings built during the reign of Italy’s fascist dictator. When it came to architecture Mussolini was the dictator who couldn’t dictate.

Noted British writer and broadcaster on all matters architectural,  Meades in this film turns his attention to the architectural history of Mussolini’s Italy . 

In his survey  he looks at, amongst others, the history and character of the following styles, buildings and architects.

The ‘Stile Liberty’ of the early years of the century. 

The work of Gino Coppede in Genoa and Rome.

The idiom of Barochetto Romano found in the Garbatella district of Rome. 

The war memorials of  Giovanni Greppi and Giannino Castiglione at Redepuglia and Monte Grappa.

Armando Brasini and the Italian Pavilion at the 1925 Paris Expo.

The plans for a new city by Futurist architect Antonio Sant’Elia

The Fiat car factory at Lingotto.

The modernist buildings of Angiolo Mazzoni and Giuseppe Terragni

The work of modernists Enrico Del Debbio and Luigi Moretti at the Foro Italico

The work of internationally renowned Italian Architect Aldo Rossi.