The ups and downs of Italian politics since the second half of the 19th century share some common features with Germany, such as the alternation of opposing regimes and regional diversity. As in Germany, the exercise of central state power had to contend with strong local configurations, whose autonomy was notable in the fields of culture and architecture. Two diachronic sections are illuminating, the first focusing on successive regimes and the configurations of cities and culture, and the second on the itineraries of architects and their encounters with powers, particularly those of the protagonists with the longest trajectories.
Under Fascism, the rivalries and divergences between architects and urban planners merely reverberated those between the regime's hierarchs, within which the corporatist wing supported the projects of the moderns. These tensions affected even the peripheries of the Italian colonial empire. As in the case of Germany, certain groups stand out, defined by demographics, political experience under successive regimes, institutional and professional experience, and regional roots.
The most original figure to emerge from these groups is Marcello Piacentini, active for six decades, during which his political role was considerable, thanks to his unrivalled adaptability. A frequent visitor to Mussolini, he manipulated competitions and invitations to tender, and carried out landmark urban renovations in Brescia and Genoa. Far from opposing the young modernists head-on, he harnessed their energy and appropriated the aura of the new global production. A pivotal figure in the regime's two decisive undertakings, the Cité Universitaire and the E42, in which he was able to assimilate the new languages, he managed to be cleared in 1945 and remain involved in Roman operations until his death.
