Not Houses but Cities—Not Designs, but Designers. 1950s - Italy: the INA-Casa Neighbourhoods

In February 1949 the ltalian government approved the INA-Casa Pian, legislation to provide incentives far employment through the construction of low-cost housing. The Pian, in effect until 1963, led to the production of 350,000 housing units in autonomous, recognizable districts across the national territory. Many great masters of architecture and urban planning played a fundamental part in the effort, and the experimentation on the theme of the neighbourhood generateci discussion and debate. In Rom e the Tiburtino district by Ridolfi, or the Tuscolano project by Quaroni and Libera, corresponded to positions of dissent with respect to the schematic approach of a certa in type of Modernism by returning to the scale of the village, while in Milan, at the Harar development, with Figini Pollini and Gio Ponti, or in the Feltre district, the large group of Milanese architects proposed solutions in which the compact morphology of the traditional city was abandoned in favour of attribution of value to public space and nature as a centrai focus. From a typological standpoint, certain Suggestions published by the director of the technical division Adalberto Libera indicated a preference far juxtaposed tract houses, terraced houses, and tower buildings, providing a variety of types whose interpretation and montage became the main compositional thrust of an initiative that succeeded in inhabiting and interpreting the locai contexts of ltaly during the reconstruction.