Il modernismo ai tropici Modernism in the Tropics
Alla fine degli anni Quaranta, gli architetti britannici Maxwell Fry e Jane Drew inventarono uno stile che adattava l’estetica modernista europea al clima dei tropici. Grazie al finanziamento del Colonial Welfare and Development Act, i coniugi realizzarono scuole, università, centri comunitari e biblioteche portando l’International style nell’Africa occidentale secondo un’ottica coloniale. Negli anni successivi, però, sarà proprio questa nuova architettura a diventare il simbolo della liberazione. La mostra Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Indipendence, al Victoria & Albert Museum di Londra fino al 22 settembre, racconta la diffusione di questa corrente architettonica con disegni, modellini, immagini e un filmato di mezz’ora. • In the late 1940s, the British architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew invented a style that adapted European modernist aesthetics to the climate of the Tropics. Thanks to funding arising out of the Colonial Welfare and Development Act, the couple built schools, universities, community centres and libraries, bringing International Style to West Africa but taking what was very much a colonial approach. In the years that followed it was precisely this new kind of architecture that became the symbol of liberation. The exhibition Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence, at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum until 22 September, uses drawings, models, pictures and a half-hour film to tell the story of how this architectural movement spread. vam.ac.uk