Antonio Sant'Elia (; 30 April 1888 – 10 October 1916) was an Italian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and a key member of the

Futurist movement Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

in architecture. He left behind almost no completed works of architecture and is primarily remembered for his bold sketches and influence on modern architecture.

Early years

Antonio Sant'Elia was born in

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

. A builder by training, he studied at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

in Milan with Giuseppe Mentessi, and then at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, where he graduated in architecture in 1912. The same year, he opened a

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

office in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and became involved with the

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

movement after meeting with

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye de ...

Writing

The ''

Manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

of Futurist Architecture'' was published in

Lacerba ''Lacerba'' was an Italian literary journal based in Florence closely associated with the Futurist movement. It published many Futurist manifestos by Filippo Marinetti, Antonio Sant'Elia, and others. The magazine was started as a fortnightly ma ...

in August 1914. It has been attributed to Sant'Elia, though some historians dispute this. In it, the author states that "The decorative value of Futurist architecture depends solely on the use and original arrangement of raw or bare or violently colored materials". Sant'Elia's vision consisted in an industrialized and mechanized city of the future, which he saw not as a conglomerate of individual buildings but a vast, multi-level, interconnected and integrated urban

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

designed around the "life" of the city.

Work

Between 1912 and 1914, influenced by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

urban landscape as well as by architects such as

Otto Wagner Otto Koloman Wagner (; 13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect, furniture designer and urban planner. He was a leading member of the Vienna Secession movement of architecture, founded in 1897, and the broader Art Nouveau mo ...

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...

, and Renzo Picasso, Sant'Elia started working on a series of sketches for a futurist "Città Nuova" ("New City") designed to symbolize a new age. Many of his drawings were exhibited at the only show of the ''Nuove Tendenze'' group (of which he was a member) in May-June 1914 at the Famiglia Artistica gallery in Milan. Today, about 170 of his works on paper are on permanent display as part of the collection of

Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Volpi, Como The Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Volpi is the town art gallery on Via Diaz 84 in the town of Como, Lombardy, Italy. It is housed in the 17th-century Palazzo Volpi. History The palace was erected from 1610 to 1630 by the Catholic nuncio and bishop ...

. Sant'Elia's work featured vast monolithic

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

buildings with terraces, bridges and aerial walkways that embodied the sheer excitement of modern architecture and technology. His monumentalism, however, was also influenced by

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

architect Giuseppe Sommaruga.''Futurist architecture and Angiolo Mazzoni’s manifesto of aerial architecture'', published in VV.AA. ''Angiolo Mazzoni e l'Architettura Futurista'' - p.11 A

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

as well as an

irredentist Irredentism () is one state's desire to annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to or the same as the population of the parent state. Hist ...

, Sant'Elia, together with other futurists such as

Mario Sironi Mario Sironi (May 12, 1885 – August 13, 1961) was an Italian Modernism, Modernist artist who was active as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer. His typically somber paintings are characterized by massive, immobile forms. Biography ...

Umberto Boccioni Umberto Boccioni (; ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach ...

and Marinetti, joined the Italian army as Italy entered

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1915. Sant'Elia was killed during the

Eighth Battle of the Isonzo The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo was fought October 10–12, 1916 between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Battle The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo fought briefly from 10 to 12 October 1916, was essentially a continuation of attempts made during the Se ...

, near

Gorizia Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, Region ...

, in 1916.

Legacy

Sant'Elia left behind very few examples of his architecture work. Among those are Villa Elisi in San Maurizio (nowadays a subdivision of

Brunate Brunate ( Comasco: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Como in northern Italy, some northeast of Milan. It has some 1,800 residents, but is much more populated in summer, when tourists rent houses and apartments. The town overlooks Co ...

), and a War Memorial in Como. The latter was completed by

Giuseppe Terragni Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the ...

in 1933. Though most of Sant'Elia's designs were never realized, his utopian vision turned out to be quite influential for generations to come. Sant'Elia is often cited as a precursor to architects such as

John Portman John Calvin Portman Jr. (December 4, 1924 – December 29, 2017) was an American neofuturistic architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atria. Portman also had a p ...

and

Helmut Jahn Helmut Jahn (January 4, 1940 – May 8, 2021) was a German-American architect, known for projects such as the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the Thompson Center in Chicago; One Libert ...

. The production design of dystopian films like

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

's 1927 ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'' and

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

's 1982 Hollywood movie ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'' is also indebted to Sant'Elia's ideas.

Works

*''La Città Nuova'', 1914

Image gallery

File:Centrale elettrica Sant'Elia.jpg, Power station (1914) File:Casa Sant'Elia.jpg, House with external elevators (1914) File:Casa a gradinata con ascensori dai quattro piani stradali 1914- Sant'Elia.jpg, Drawing (1914) File:Santelia02.jpg, Drawing (1914) Image:Stazione Sant'Elia.jpg, Perspective drawing from ''La Città Nuova'', 1914

References

Bibliography

* VV.AA. ''Angiolo Mazzoni e l'Architettura Futurista'', Supplement of CE.S.A.R. September/December 2008 (Available at ) (Also at ) *Riccardo Rosati, ‘Antonio Sant’Elia e il contributo del futurismo italiano in Metropolis e Akira’, ''Manga Academica'', 13, 9-34, 2020.

External links

Website in Italian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santelia, Antonio 1888 births 1916 deaths Italian Futurism Futurist architects 20th-century Italian architects Modernist architects from Italy People from Como Italian military personnel killed in World War I Brera Academy alumni