Futurist architecture

This architectural style first emerged in Italy in the 20th century, after the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote the first Futurist manifesto in 1909. Its founder was the Italian architect Antonio Sant’Elia, known as the author of the New City project.

In 1920, the second futurist manifesto appeared; it was called the “Manifesto of Dynamic Instinctive Dramatic Futurist Architecture” (author – Virgilio Marchi). Fifteen years later, there was “Manifesto of Air Architecture” by Marinetti, Angiolo Mazzoni and Mino Somenzi.

Key ideas:

– Dynamic lines that express speed.

– Deliberate opposition of theory and practice.

– Unwillingness to rely on the experience of previous art movements, striving for something completely new.

– The cult of the “century of machines”, admiration for the new achievements of civilization.

Futurism influenced such styles in architecture as expressionism and rationalism.

Key architects: Giacomo Balla, Antonio Sant’Elia, Umberto Boccioni, Giuseppe Terragni, Mario Ridolfi, Eurico Prampolini.