Following World War II, the Genoese administration launched an ambitious public housing program to address the city’s acute shortage of dwellings. After the emergency’s peak, the municipal technical office – led by engineer Mario Braccialini and drawing on Giulio Zappa’s architectural studies – embarked on a more advanced design effort, constructing about seventy housing blocks for low-income families. The first phase established a residential model to be replicated across the peripheral districts of Voltri, Cornigliano, Certosa, Pontedecimo, and Sturla, implemented through individual buildings or small clusters; the second introduced a typological variation suited to larger settlements, integrating public services and spaces, as seen at Villa Cataldi in Sestri Ponente and Villa Carrara in Quarto. While the second phase is marked by greater spatial complexity and urban articulation, the first stands out for its more original compositional experimentation – despite constraints related to cost-efficiency, rapid execution, and long-term durability. The prototype tested in Voltri in 1948 was a nine-story slab block with a standardized floor plan, two stairwells, and a flat roof. Both sets of façades contribute to the model’s expressive identity: the main elevations display a rhythmic sequence of solids and voids, a chromatic contrast between plastered surfaces and white stringcourses, the sculptural projection of staggered balconies, and a stone-clad base; the side elevations, smooth and whitewashed, progressively widen upward through a symmetrical flaring that wraps around the upper edge, framing the overall volume. Local variations of the architectural typology, along with later hybridizations of other models, reveal the vitality of a paradigm that serves both as a design tool – codified in a compositional standard – and as a political-figurative device, shaping the identity of social housing within Genoa’s urban landscape.
Le case comunali di Mario Braccialini e Giulio Zappa a Genova. Sperimentazione tipologica e compositiva nel secondo dopoguerra
Elisabetta Canepa
2025-01-01
Abstract
Following World War II, the Genoese administration launched an ambitious public housing program to address the city’s acute shortage of dwellings. After the emergency’s peak, the municipal technical office – led by engineer Mario Braccialini and drawing on Giulio Zappa’s architectural studies – embarked on a more advanced design effort, constructing about seventy housing blocks for low-income families. The first phase established a residential model to be replicated across the peripheral districts of Voltri, Cornigliano, Certosa, Pontedecimo, and Sturla, implemented through individual buildings or small clusters; the second introduced a typological variation suited to larger settlements, integrating public services and spaces, as seen at Villa Cataldi in Sestri Ponente and Villa Carrara in Quarto. While the second phase is marked by greater spatial complexity and urban articulation, the first stands out for its more original compositional experimentation – despite constraints related to cost-efficiency, rapid execution, and long-term durability. The prototype tested in Voltri in 1948 was a nine-story slab block with a standardized floor plan, two stairwells, and a flat roof. Both sets of façades contribute to the model’s expressive identity: the main elevations display a rhythmic sequence of solids and voids, a chromatic contrast between plastered surfaces and white stringcourses, the sculptural projection of staggered balconies, and a stone-clad base; the side elevations, smooth and whitewashed, progressively widen upward through a symmetrical flaring that wraps around the upper edge, framing the overall volume. Local variations of the architectural typology, along with later hybridizations of other models, reveal the vitality of a paradigm that serves both as a design tool – codified in a compositional standard – and as a political-figurative device, shaping the identity of social housing within Genoa’s urban landscape.
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