Socialità, identità e “disordine” nei quartieri popolari del secondo dopoguerra in Italia

The design of working-class neighbourhoods in post-war Italy was influenced by a departure from the main themes of the Modern Movement: terraced houses, arranged neatly along the heliothermic axis, were replaced by groups of residences of different types, staggered or rotated in relation to each other to create green and urban spaces that encourage sociability. To avoid uniformity, buildings offered variety in the openings and texture of the facades, so as to characterise the townscape in a quest for harmony, beauty and identity. This apparent disorder was, in actual fact, governed by a rule, which is revealed when degradation and neglect result in it being transgressed. From the perspective of the history of architecture and the city, this paper proposes the results of some case study in Italy that make these points clear.