Abitare la campagna. I borghi rurali fascisti Schirò, Ferrara e Borzellino in provincia di Palermo

Abstract

Seventy-six years after the fall of fascism, without ideological prejudices and with awareness of the dramatic events that took place, interest in the architectural qualities of rural villages is growing in Europe, for their construction economy and the interaction between urban and agricultural condition. In Sicily, especially since 1940, the year in which the complete reclamation is also a colonisation of the large estate, the uninhabited agricultural expanses begin to include villages organised around a square. Among hundred villages foreseen in a ten-year plan, thirteen have already been built in 1942. Among these, borgo Schirò (1939) and borgo Borzellino (1942) built in the province of Palermo, in the municipality of Monreale - designed by Girolamo Manetti Cusa, Giuseppe Caronia and Guido Puleo - and borgo Ferrara (1940), remained on paper and hypothesised by Giuseppe Spatrisano for the same municipality. These cases allow us to explore some of the results of studies on rural buildings connected to important cultural initiatives (VI Triennale of Milan in 1936; the Exposition internationale de la technique de l’eau of Liège in 1939; a famous book by Epifanio, and Ajroldi, Caracciolo, Lanza group's research work), to delve deeper into specific researches by the authors, and - finally - to guide the criteria for maintenance and possible reuse of a widespread and largely abandoned heritage.