5.1 Futurism: ideology, key figures, and architectural manifestations

Futurism, born in Italy in 1909, championed speed, technology, and modernity. Led by Marinetti and Sant'Elia, it rejected tradition and embraced a dynamic, machine-inspired aesthetic that influenced art and architecture.

Futurist architecture envisioned radical cityscapes with multilevel structures and integrated transport networks. Though mostly unrealized, these bold ideas shaped modernist design, celebrating industrial progress and urban transformation.

Futurism Founders and Key Figures

Leading Futurist Artists

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• Filippo Tommaso Marinetti launched the Futurist movement in 1909 with the publication of the Futurist Manifesto
• Umberto Boccioni was a prominent Futurist painter and sculptor known for works that captured the dynamic energy of modern life (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space)
• Giacomo Balla experimented with capturing motion and speed in his Futurist paintings, often focusing on abstract light effects (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash)
• Antonio Sant'Elia was the leading architect of Futurism who designed visionary, modernist buildings that celebrated technology and industry, though most remained unbuilt

Futurist Manifesto and Ideology

• The Futurist Manifesto, written by Marinetti in 1909, laid out the core principles and aesthetics of the movement
  • Rejected tradition and embraced speed, technology, youth, and violence
  • Called for the sweeping away of established artistic and social norms to make way for a new modern world
• Dynamism was a central concept in Futurist art that aimed to depict the sensation of movement and flux in static artworks
  • Achieved through techniques like blurring, repetition of forms, and abstract lines of force
• The Futurists were obsessed with speed as the defining characteristic of modern life in the machine age
  • Sought to capture the exhilaration of racing cars, trains, and airplanes in their art and poetry
• Technology and industry were seen by the Futurists as the driving forces of progress that would transform society
  • Glorified in their art through angular, mechanical forms and the incorporation of modern materials like metal and glass

Futurist Architectural Vision

• Antonio Sant'Elia's 1914 drawing series La Città Nuova (The New City) presented a radical vision of a future metropolis
  • Multilevel megastructures integrated transportation networks, energy generators, and aerial walkways
  • Stripped of ornament and historical references in favor of sleek, functional forms
  • Hugely influential on later modernist architecture despite remaining hypothetical
• The Casa del Fascio (House of Fascism), built in 1932-36 in Como, Italy, is considered the most important realized Futurist building
  • Designed by Giuseppe Terragni with a stark, asymmetrical facade of rectangular glass and concrete forms
  • Interior features dramatic light wells and cantilevered staircases that create a sense of kinetic energy
• Other Futurist architects like Virgilio Marchi and Mario Chiattone produced visionary sketches and models of streamlined buildings and cities
  • Floating structures, ziggurat-like skyscrapers, and sweeping expressways
  • More provocative as ideas than practical as architecture, but shaped the modernist imagination