Theory and praxis in the design of Naples "capital" in the second half of the eighteenth century

In the second half of the eighteenth century, architects become exponents of a close correlation between the factory and the city, a structural connection involving the parts in an inseparable complex. All the problems related to the construction of the buildings are placed in an urban context which abides by modern scientific principles. In facts, in the second half of the eighteenth century, next to the projects and the achievements, alongside the treatises and the theories, some critical ideas about the nature and management of the city emerge, arisen from the need for order and rationality intrinsic in the Enlightenment ideals. In the same cultural climate, October 3, 1781, Ferdinand IV in Naples emanates a decree which represents a key document for the understanding of the urban situation in the Neapolitan capital at the end of the eighteenth century. The new law was passed with the help of the architect Gaetano Barba, who inspired the text of the pragmatic, that regulated the Neapolitan urban abuse and in which the concepts of beauty, morphological regularity and variety get together with the new urban hygiene requirements and public safety.