A new review of THE POLITICS OF THE PIAZZA appeared in
TOWN PLANNING REVIEW Volume 81 Number 6 2010
The Politics of the Piazza:
The History and Meaning of the Italian Square
Eamonn Canniffe, Farnham, Ashgate, 2008, 304 pp.,
Since the rise of New Urbanism in the 1990s
onwards, the Italian square – better known
as the piazza – has become a reference point
for those who advocate a return to traditional
urban form. Therefore a book dealing with
its history and meaning should be a welcome
addition for urban design practitioners and to
the literature dealing with this topic. Eamonn
Canniffe is well placed to provide this being
a former Rome Scholar, a principal lecturer
at the Manchester School of Architecture
and the author of several books dealing with
urbanism.
His book is a densely written account
which examines the roots of Italian urban
form, followed by a chronological sequence
from the Renaissance through Mannerism
and Baroque, neo-classicism, Fascism,
neo-realism and neo-rationalism to the
present day. The author’s text is illustrated
with his own black and white photographs,
some it has to be said of variable quality. In
addition there are 19 ‘diagrams’ of some of
the piazzas examined. Many of these are
rather dull isometric line drawings, produced
in a style reminiscent of James Stirling’s
isometrics of the 1950s and 1960s. Some of
the diagrams appear to be photographs of
coloured drawings of interesting and even
delightful spatial studies, perhaps produced
by Canniffe when he was a Rome Scholar. It
is a pity their provenance is not explained in
detail.
Undoubtedly Canniffe’s examination
of such places is thoughtful, but in many
cases the details can only be appreciated
by those readers already familiar with the
piazza concerned. A good example of this is
the description of the Piazza IV Novembre
in Perugia, where three to four pages are
devoted to a highly detailed history and
analysis supported by photographs, but with
only two indifferent isometric diagrams. This
calls out for an annotated plan so that the
author’s comments can be followed, as well
as mapping to locate the piazza in the interesting
urban fabric of Perugia.
Although the author professes to be
examining the ‘history and meaning’ of the
various squares he studies, some of the key
examples seem to be short of relevant detail.
For example, his discussion of the famous
Piazza del Campo in Siena does not explain
its establishment as a result of the struggle of
the city to exert its authority over the group
of powerful families that controlled Siena in
the mid to late thirteenth century. Instead we
are given a description of the form of the
piazza which again lacks the focus of a plan
and cross sections to aid understanding.
Parts III and IV of the book provide
accounts of less familiar more recent periods
of Italian history. Of particular interest is
Italy’s periods of Fascism and neo-nationalism.
Piazza della Vittoria in Brescia was the
culmination of the re-planning of the city in
the late 1920s and served to glorify Mussolini.
It referred back to the Roman era in its
arrangement, detail and ‘refabrication’ of
genuine remains of the period. Interestingly
the author draws out the links with Camillo
Sitte’s organic, picturesque approach to the
handling of urban fabric, due to the architect
Piacentini being a disciple of Sitte. The
author comments perceptively here that
‘Piacentini’s work enabled authoritarian
power to be validated through the appeal to
specific urban memories, resting on foundations
which were archaeologically speculative,
reconstructed for propagandistic
purposes’. Such a comment could perhaps
be levelled at some of the work by adherents
of the New Urbanism movement, which
can often have an emphasis on debatable
historic references! It is a pity that Piacentini’s
baroque-style scheme for what is now a
suburb of Rome called EUR did not form a
greater part of the account. Originally EUR
(standing for Esposizione Universale Roma) was
intended as a world fair site for 1942, which
was cancelled. The design of EUR was
controversial and only resolved by commissioning
leaders of both the ‘reactionary’ and
‘progressive’ factions in Italian architecture
and urban planning. The author’s exposition
of this scheme and its place and meaning in
the development of modernism would have
been welcome.
The author acknowledges that neorealism
produced few significant new urban
spaces in the post-war period and his account
here relies more on publications (and even
Federico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita)
than spaces. However he does use Stazione
Termini, Rome, as an example, although
the related Piazza del Cinquecento is hardly
the designed or evolved space that is the real
object of the book. (This is a large space
devoted to a bus station and a traffic roundabout
opposite where Diocletian’s Baths once
stood.) He makes much of the incorporation
of the fourth-century BC Severan Wall into
the Terminus as it passes through the façade
at an oblique angle. Perhaps the cantilevered
vaulted roof reflects the shape of the Severan
Wall? However, the wall appears more like a
fly encapsulated in amber – a curiosity from
the past devoid of meaning rather than a
treasured cultural artefact.
The most significant urban theorist of
the neo-rationalist movement was Aldo
Rossi, who published the influential book The
Architecture of the City in 1966. While Rossi’s
book refers to historical examples (Piazza
dell’Antifeatro in Lucca built around the
remains of a Roman Amphitheatre), most
of it concentrates on buildings rather than
spaces. Canniffe does use Rossi’s incomplete
La Nuova Piazza, Fontivegge, as an example
to discuss for this period. Despite four pages
being devoted to this building complex (and
three large photographs showing the overscaled
buildings in Rossi’s rather primitive
style), it is impossible without knowing this
scheme to gain any real idea of the form of
this ‘piazza’.
Despite the author’s attempt to describe
the ‘piazza’ without an actual plan, this is
actually a public building complex (centro
direzionale) with a large ‘E-shaped’ block
standing to the side of a rectangular space in
which a double wall encloses a staircase-like
fountain stands. In this reviewer’s opinion it
hardly justifies its description as a piazza as
the term is normally understood – that is, a
public square surrounded by buildings. This
‘piazza’ relates well neither to the railway
station nor to the rest of the urban fabric of
Perugia, even accepting the piazza’s incompleteness
and Canniffe’s frank description
of the surroundings as being chaotic and
formless.
The penultimate chapter of the book deals
with the work of Carlo Scarpa in designing
memorials – notably for Piazza della Loggia in
Brascia. Here Scarpa proposed reconfiguring
the entire piazza, although this scheme was
then sharply reduced in scope. The author
makes a fascinating link between Scarpa’s
use of the ancient symbol of the labyrinth
and Italy’s confused political scene; polarised
between communism and capitalism, fascism
and democracy and what he calls ‘The
monster at the heart of Italian society – political
violence’. Canniffe devotes a lot of space
to an exegesis of the ‘labyrinth’ as a motif
of Scarpa’s conception of city space. He also
Book reviews 717
places a lot of emphasis on the ‘meaning’ of
Scarpa’s enigmatic memorial in the Piazza
della Loggia. How this abbreviated memorial
relates to the ‘labyrinth’ is unclear, although
the proceeding more elaborate scheme with
low walls around the site of the bomb blast
could be so interpreted.
The final pages are focussed on the
threat to traditional urban spaces from the
encroachment of commercial material –
notably the use of giant advertising screens
to cover restoration projects and even new
buildings. The impact of permanent giant
hoardings or projection screens on public
spaces is well illustrated; Canniffe notes there
has been a ‘collapse of conventional issues
of scale’ involved and that a city’s contemporary
appearance is being determined by
‘branding’. He ends by posing questions on
whether the piazza has a long-term future:
will the collective experience of sharing
images and information in the public realm
still be significant? Will the piazza remain the
appropriate location for political discourse?
Or will it be seen only as a repository of the
‘rich legacy of the past’? The author would
surely give positive answers, even if the piazza
as a form will involve further transformations
and adaptations.
Without doubt this book is impeccably
researched and has a rich nine-page bibliography
worthy of follow-up study by interested
professionals. There are few books that tackle
the subject with the depth of knowledge and
insights displayed by the author. While short
on plans of the piazzas described, it can be
welcomed as one of a short list of reference
works that are required reading for students
of urbanism and practicing urban designers
alike.
Derrick Hartley
University of Liverpool
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