"L'Ossatura Murale" and Italian Modern Architecture from 1920 to 1940

Starting from Milani's theories, we will analyze some of his works, in order to read how his language evolved towards the modern and to understand the methodological approach, so rich in implication for the contemporary design. Milani's point of view about the adoption of new materials and of new construction techniques bears a useful reflection on the deep relationships between type, structure and decorative expressiveness.

His masterpiece, L'Ossatura murale (Masonry anatomy), is considered by some researchers – often to underline its anachronism – to be the last epilogue of the classical treatises. In it he presents the drawing, the measure, the mental operations of disassembly and reassembly, as instruments of analysis and comprehension of the logical immanent principles, valid for building design. We analyzed, in particular, those aspects of difficult relationship between the use of the traditional shapes and the adoption of the modern constructive technologies, which will be typical for the “other Italian modernity”.