During the 20th century, the urban mutation spawned by the mechanization of agriculture and the migration from the country to the city gave rise to the so-called ‘housing problem’. The areas where industrialization took off had been through it before, and the unhealthy overcrowding of urban masses was the backdrop for the hygienist promise of modern architecture, that fed on the same spirit of renewal and the same moral indignation as the projects of Utopian socialism or the protests of revoluti../MORE

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During the 20th century, the urban mutation spawned by the mechanization of agriculture and the migration from the country to the city gave rise to the so-called ‘housing problem’. The areas where industrialization took off had been through it before, and the unhealthy overcrowding of urban masses was the backdrop for the hygienist promise of modern architecture, that fed on the same spirit of renewal and the same moral indignation as the projects of Utopian socialism or the protests of revolutionary marxism in the previous century. In the eve of the 21st, though only in the developed world, housing is no longer a quantitative or health concern, but a qualitative and environmental one: having guaranteed minimal dimensions, effective ventilation and adequate sunlight, the contemporary dwelling suffers from visual mediocrity, routinary programs and anorexic contexts.