ROME.- The Architettura in Uniforme. Designing and Building for the Second World War explores the various ways in which architects worked during the Second World War, such as testing new construction materials and techniques, inventing new forms of camouflage and propaganda, and designing gigantic structures for production and war tests as well as for concentration camps, modernizing both techniques and design methods. The exhibition is curated by Jean Louis Cohen, conceived and realized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, and adapted by the Cité de l’Architecture et du patrimoine in Paris and by MAXXI in Rome (from December 19, 2014 to May 3, 2015).

MAXXI Architecture, directed by Margherita Guccione, presents this exhibition based on decades of archival and field research, recounting a period of in-depth study and the deep transformation of architecture between 1939 and 1945, a period in which four continents were ravaged by the Second World War.

Many architects took part in the fighting, while others continued their professional activity serving the needs of the moment; the technical modernization that started in the 1920s was carried forward via innovative research and programs. The war deployed all kinds of constructive, visual, organizational and managerial techniques and tools in architecture.

Major architects of the Modern Movement have been involved in the many programs prompted by the war, from Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier to Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Richard Neutra and Louis Kahn. Original drawings are on display.

With large-scale building projects such as the Pentagon, or the Oak Ridge atomic plant and the planning of forbidden territories, the scale of design expanded; urban, architectural and landscape design went through major changes, which played an important role in criminal undertakings such as the concentration camps at Auschwitz.

Since 1945, modern architecture has reigned undisputed around the world, except for a brief period in the Soviet bloc: visions of the world to come were drawn up and new cities were imagined. After the war architects used the methods elaborated in those years for residential and urban purposes, making clear how the war had transformed not only the way of designing and constructing buildings, but also the conceptual foundations of architectural practice.

“In addition to clarifying the events of a historical moment overlooked by most of the historical narratives, and to highlighting unknown or misunderstood projects, the exhibition casts light on the ethical challenge that the war represented for the architects,” says Jean-Louis Cohen, curator of the exhibition. “From war criminals, like Albert Speer, to resistance fighters like Polish-born Szymon Syrkus, who survived by working as an architect for the Auschwitz camp, a broad spectrum of the human experiences of those years is reviewed here.”

“This exhibition perfectly expresses the idea of how important it is to move away from the stereotypes of history and rekindle people’s attention toward a crucial period in twentieth-century architecture and its effects on the culture that followed.” These are the words of Margherita Guccione, Director of MAXXI Architettura, who adds that “the very rich exhibition path that reveals how architects were mobilized during the war years, integrated in this edition by a considerable number of Italian materials, is the result of a great deal of research and collaboration on the part of the Museum of Architecture with two of the most prestigious international institutions, the CCA of Montreal and the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris.”

CCA Director Mirko Zardini added: ”The CCA’s exhibitions and programs investigate often overlooked ideas that can inform and advance the contemporary architectural debate and practice. Architecture in Uniform tackles a vast gray zone of our discipline and offers new perspectives; the war served not only as an accelerator of technical innovation, but also engaged architects in a military structure with precise social, political and moral responsibilities, the effects of which are still felt today.”

Within the scope of the immense repertory of experiences that make up the narrative of the exhibition, an inventory of 14 themes defines the exhibition narrative, and illustrates the extent to which architectural activities varied through the fighting nations, from the United States to Japan, from the United Kingdom to France, from Germany to the USSR.

The themes of the exhibition include the personal trajectories of architects such as Ernst Neufert who sided with the Nazis, and of those fought in the resistance, such as Lodovico di Begiojoso; the ways in which cities such as Rome, Milan, or London responded to the air raids; the gigantic development of factories, as illustrated by the designs of Albert Kahn; the contribution of Erich Mendelsohn to the experimentation of incendiary bombs; the research developed in the realm of visual perception for the sake of camouflage, with the exemplary schemes of Hugh Casson. Communication and propaganda, which used media such as poster art and film, are considered through the work of designers such as Norman Bel Geddes. Finally, objects designed for wartime uses by Charles and Ray Eames, or which were disseminated during the war years, like the Willys Jeep, are emphasized in the galleries.

The narrative then moves on to the stories of internment, the Nuremberg Trial, installed by landscape designer Dan Kiley, to finally reach the architecture of the postwar period and the programs devoted to memory.

Particular emphasis is dedicated to Italy, both before and after the armistice in 1943, told by period newsreels, photographs, projects and other documents, including the images of the David of Michelangelo wrapped up in protective material against the bombings, the notebooks of Bruno Zevi and Ludovico Quaroni, the projects for Tirana of Gherardo Bosio, the Littorina (an aluminum and wooden bicycle made to respond to the scarcity of materials needed by the war effort), the Monument to the Fallen at the Fosse Ardeatine, by Mario Fiorentino and Giuseppe Perugini, and many more.

The 14 themes of the exhibition: Architects in uniform - War on the cities in the cities - The home front and autarchy - The industrial front: producing and providing accommodation to the workers - Fortifications and war projects - Anti-air raid protection - Camouflage, that is, designing the invisible - At the service of communication - Four macro projects - Architectures of occupation - Architects and prisoners - Nuremberg Trials - Imagining the postwar period and recycling the military technologies - Architecture of memory