The Italian Colonial Appropriation of Indigenous North African Architecture in the 1930’s

Abstract

. . the native architecture of our Mediterranean colonies presents, for those who may know how to recognize it, all the necessary requirements from which to deduce a perfect modern colonial architecture: rationality in planning, contemporary simplicity of form in exterior appearance, perfect adherence to the necessity of the African climate, perfect harmony with the Libyan nature. When the frequent examples that they propose to us of vivid polychromy applied to affect and brighten up the nudity of the cubic masses and smooth walls are added to these qualities, it will be shown that the native architecture of Libya offers us all of the desirable elements for creating our present-day colonial architecture.