rationalism

In architecture, an Italian movement of the 1920s which grew out of a reaction to the extremes of Futurism. It was led by Gruppo 7, a loose association of young Italian architects, headed by Giuseppe Terragni. The group's rationalist approach aimed to restore a sense of mass and volume to modern architecture and resulted in a clear‐cut, austere style, exemplified in Terragni's Casa del Fascio, Como, 1932–36. The work of the movement suffered from its association with Fascism, but was reappraised in the 1960s by the New York Five, in particular Peter Eisenman. A parallel re‐evaluation took place in Italy, culminating in the neo‐rationalism of Aldo Rossi and Giorgio Grassi (1935– ).