Cultura del progetto e didattica della rappresentazione al Politecnico di Milano tra Otto e Novecento

At the time of the unification of Italy, contemporary drawing was eager to identify a style capable of expressing the new national identity. In 1863 in Milan, the nerve centre of new ideas, the Polytechnic was founded and given the title of Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore, with the aim of training new civil and mechanical engineers. For the preparation of the former, great importance was given from the start to the field of representation, as an essential element regarding every aspect of drawing. A study programme was defined in which drawing was considered fundamental for the various technical and structural courses. The result was sober “practical” expression, as demonstrated in the manuals that illustrious scholars, such as Archimede Sacchi e Carlo Formenti, were to publish to promote their work in the context of civil and national drawing. In 1865 the course of civil Architecture was founded to accompany the course of civil Engineering, connected from the outset to the Brera Fine Arts Academy through the eminent figure of Camillo Boito. Here the architectonic themes were more monumental, and the teaching of drawing followed this interpretation. Although with subtle differences, it is possible to observe how, from the first decades of the twentieth century, the training of civil engineers specialising in civil buildings, water systems, road systems and industry, and of architects reinterpreting styles on the basis of “present needs and uses”.