Abstract

A survey of Italian and American architecture publications from the 1920s and 1930s reveals that architects in both countries were well aware of one another’s work, as they were of that in other countries. Designers actively participated in an international design culture in which similarities of purposes, formal language, materials and technology, and incorporation of the contributions of allied artists were more evident than national characteristics or propagandistic programs that might have distinguished them. Evaluation of the architecture of the period in various countries must consider this international context as well as noting how individual countries developed design directions of di erent character for reasons of their own. This article sketches the mutual acquaintance of Italian and American architects during the interwar period to reveal a richer and more complex reality than surveys limited to single countries can provide or that has been presented in the literature until now.