The ideological approach to the study of Italian rural architecture in first half of XX century

In Italy between 19th and 20th centuries, the gradual shift from traditional to industrialized agriculture has led to a progressive detachment from secular forms of rural architecture. Thus a critical study of these architectures started in order to understand the defects and to propose interventions of functional improvement or hygienic renewal; however, the growing interest for this type of architecture meant that researchers began to better understand and appreciate them. The paper proposes a historical analysis of the phases of initial detachment and of subsequent critical re-evaluation, stressing that they have been deeply influenced by the ideological factors that characterized the 19th and 20th century both at the socio-political and at the architectural levels. The rural rationalization typical of 19th century positivism was followed at the end of the century by a negative judgment related to the emergence of industry. In the fascist era a first critical re-evaluation was connected to the exaltation of rural life promoted to counteract urbanization and was characterized by the appreciation of essential volumes seen as forerunners of modern architecture. In the postwar, the whole of the anti-fascist parties praised the social values of rural life by promoting architectural neo-realism.