by Roberto Gamba

Architettura ferroviaria in Italia. Ottocento, A cura di Ezio Godoli e Mauro Cozzi, Dario Flaccovio Editore, Palermo 2005 (pp. 512, € 18,00) Architettura ferroviaria in Italia. Novecento, A cura di Ezio Godoli e Antonietta Iolanda, Lima Dario Flaccovio Editore, Palermo 2005 (pp. 522, € 18,00)

These two volumes are the outcome of the 2001 MIUR research programme (the architecture of Italian railway stations – national coordinator Ezio Godoli). The first is published with funds assigned to the Departments of history of architecture and the city and civil engineering at the University of Florence, and the second to the University of Palermo’s History and design in architecture and the Polytechnic of Turin’s House-city. Together they are the proceedings of the conferences held in 2003, one in November in Florence and the other in December in Palermo.

The conference held at the Mart of Rovereto, and turned into a publication in 2003 by Skira, on “Angiolo Mazzoni – architect, engineer for the ministry of communications” is also cited. In the introduction to the volume on the 19th century, it is stated that “around 1830-40, for the Italian states, the railways were without doubt an opportunity to understand modernity… the great traveller buildings constructed around the unification of Italy are often architecturally remarkable.” Milan’s first central station by the Frenchman Buchot is detailed, as well as Genoa Principe and Turin Porta Nuova, designed by Alessandro Mazzucchetti. The bridges over the river Po also show themselves to be influential in the debate on the Italian unification style (the enterprise of Alfredo Cottran is revealed in that of Mezzana Corti).

The monumental stations of Rome, Naples, Palermo and those of many other medium and small cities also display their relevance. Another 19th-century architectural theme proposed by railway constructions and stations is the coexistence and contrast of iron and metalwork with stone and bricks, seen in the roofs and bridge masts. The volume on the 19th century consists of eleven essays concerning “pre-unity railways” and thirteen dedicated to “cities and stations in unified Italy”.The illustration of works in the first part is chiefly assigned to maps, period drawings and pictorial representations of the atmospheres and landscapes crossed and built up with the railway constructions.

The second part throws light on urban problems, such as architectural inclusion, functionality and stylistic significance, which represented the designs for the stations of Genoa, Milan and Turin. It also regards the qualification of public space and station forecourts, while underlining some aspects of technological innovation that determined tunnel construction. We also learn of the origins and dynamics of the network and stations that structured Sicily, the emergence of constructional and compositional elements linked to the constructions (roofing, shelters, building configurations, decorative details, technical constructions, rotundas, depots, workshops) and, in particular, the scientific and technological aspects in the construction of roofs, roof trusses and types of supports.

The last essay concerns the design of railway engineering: the graphic methods used in the period and the representation of construction details. In the volume dedicated to the 20th century there is the emergence of planners, technicians and public officials, followed by the events relative to some large cities and colonies. There are also the no-less interesting episodes recorded in medium and small centres such as Agrigento, Syracuse, Enna and Taormina in Sicily, Alessandria, Cossato Biellese and Orbassano and the small stations of the Turin-Ceres line in Piemonte, then Viareggio, Villa S. Giovanni, Forlì, Reggio Emilia and others.

There is also an examination of locomotive and carriage design, as well as technological problems and furnishing design (dealt with to create formal harmony with the architectural context and define the station’s external spaces and interior and exterior furnishings). There are thirty-nine essays. Some are dedicated to architects and engineers of the Ministry of Communications, such as Paolo Perilli, Roberto Narducci and Angiolo Mazzoni who realised buildings destined to significantly determine an institutional style and frequently enter the pages of books on the history of architecture. Furthermore, the volume documents and reproduces the variety of the designs with period photographs and original drawings.

It reports the outcomes of the competitions set for the construction of stations in major Italian cities. There is also a consideration of the functional, technical and expressive aspects with which today the necessary transformations of historic stations has been set underway. This goes along with more recent conceptions framing the economic and interactive value of intermodal traffic junctions that greatly influence the urban development of cities. The last essays propose aspects that link the stations, the railway system and the train in literary narration, an assured source of inspiration and consideration for every field of planning. The editors Godoli and Cozzi teach at the University of Florence and Lima at the University of Palermo.

Roberto Gamba Architect