The “Palazzo del Governo” in Taranto: at beginnings of a typical “Italian” style

At the beginning of the 20th Century, characterized by the spirit of a new “faith” towards the potentialities of “purely” Italian resources, it was developed new industries, that start their activities by the most brilliant italian minds and that led to the experimentation of new materials and construction systems; they represented Italy’s technological vanguard in the world. In this context, architecture and its decorative arts, through large exhibitions and impressive public works (government buildings, community buildings, after-work buildings, etc.) became the international symbol towards affirmation of a national style, echo of the classic architectural tradition and shining example of the most prestigious constructive avantgardes, proudly defined as ‘Italian’. The architects and designers role was complicate in order to responde to the requirements of each architecture; they had to combine the much more innovative materials and construction systems of the Modernity. The buildings became, therefore, complex architectural systems, symbol of a continuous formal research towards the memory of a past and - at the same time - expression of the constructive innovation of the present. Among these, the “Palazzo del Governo” in Taranto, built on a project by the architect Armando Brasini and inaugurated in 1934 by Benito Mussolini, represented an emblematic garrison of Government. Although in the image it mimes the reflection of an architecture of ancient times, the “Palazzo del Governo” hides inside a complex structural system made of beams and pillars in reinforced concrete, whose construction techniques and structural innovations is comparable to the well-known “Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana” in Rome (built only a few years later, 1938-53). The research, therefore, aims to show how architecture, with its own shapes, stylistic features and constructive characters, represents and describes the social and cultural events of a community; the preservation of these architectures becomes a means through which to recover the history of a people, thus allowing to transfer to future generations a cultural heritage not inferior to that received from the past