Abstract

In 1937, in defiance of the fascist regime, Giuseppe Pagano, editor of «Casabella», invited Alfonso Gatto to collaborate with the magazine. Gatto had spent six months in the San Vittore prison because of his anti-fascist activities. Pagano thus hoped to fill the void following Edoardo Persico’s death (10 January 1936). Gatto was a friend of Persico, who had acted as his mentor, and accepted this challenge by contributing to the monthly column ‘Cronaca dell’architettura’ from March 1937 to November 1938. This essay highlights Gatto’s pieces on Fascist architecture, which he considered to be the mirror of a moral and cultural involution of the hegemonic classes. As was generally the case with the magazine ‘Casabella’ in the interwar period, however, Gatto’s polemical work lacked a reflection on the theme of the city and rather mainly focused on individual buildings. Only in 1964 Gatto wrote his most mature article: a reflection on the housing issue that can still be considered one of the best contributions on the topic to this date.