Brutalist Italy

The first book on Italy’s unique Brutalist style, from the authors of Soviet Asia.

What makes Italian Brutalist buildings different to their counterparts in other countries? Containing over 140 exclusive photographs—ranging from private homes to churches and cemeteries via football stadiums—across every region of the country, Brutalist Italy is the first publication to focus entirely on this subject. Architectural photographers Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego (authors of Soviet Asia) have spent the past five years traveling over 12,000 miles documenting the monumental concrete structures of their native country.

Brutalism—with its minimalist aesthetic, favoring raw materials and structural elements over decorative design—has a complex relationship with Italian history. After World War II, Italian architects were keen to distance themselves from fascism, without rejecting the architectural modernism that had flourished during that era. They developed a form of contemporary architecture that engaged with traditional methods and materials, drawing on uncontaminated historical references. This plurality of pasts assimilated into new constructions is a recurring feature of the country’s Brutalist buildings, imparting to them a unique identity.

From the imposing social housing of Le Vele di Scampia to the celestial Our Lady of Tears Sanctuary, Syracuse, Brutalist Italy collects the most compelling examples of this extraordinary architecture for the first time in a single volume.