Fichera traversed the tension of 20th century architecture, in an exemplary manner, from the Liberty style of the Roman project of Villa Ghirlandina (1907) to the “exalted rationalism” of the project for the Tribunal in Catania (1936-53); proposing significant testimony as to how international suggestion and renewal can be practiced without betraying ones own cultural roots. He was a “classic” architect in the Vitruvian sense; the rules of “firmitas” and of precise building methods, inherited from a “tradition” that he recognized as his genetic heritage (having a father, Filadelfo, who was a successful engineer and a professor of ornate style decoration at the University of Catania) constantly occupied him in his inquisitive research of the economy and functionality of a modern “utilitas”. He needed, above all, to develop innovation within, rather than outside, tradition in order to also discover a “constructive means of expression” along with “an ideal to express” (Fichera 1935). This necessary reflection on the world of forms, regarding the values of the “new”, had been encouraged by his master Ernesto Basile, through a floral language that overcame the abuse of styles, not through their cancellation but by bringing them back to the elementary principle of nature. The first architectural projects that Fichera realized in Catania were inspired by this epochal progress: from Villa Miranda (1908-09), still reflecting the lessons of his Palermo master, to the more stylized works, like Villa Vagliasindi (1911) and Villa Majorana (1911-13), with which he explored the international horizon, admiring Wagner’s rigour in renovating tradition through a controlled opening-up to the modern Jugendstil, and aiming towards the linear geometries that Hoffmann used to overcome the vegetal suppleness of Art Nouveau stiffening it in orthogonal coordinates. Il was however Olbrich, “the genius Austrian architect, whose vitality was a violent and furious blaze” (Fichera 1914) who gave Fichera clear indications of how to decline floral sinuosity within vigorous volumetric configurations. In Fichera’s work, such volumes were often translated into contradictory, but always original, experiments. On one side, there were the terse layouts of Villa Simili (1909) and the Sporting Club (1913) that combined well with strong stereometric outline plans, allowing him to recover (through Vienna’s lessons) an ancient Mediterranean-arabesque tradition of Sicilian architecture, without falling into the trap of an apparent revival. On the other side, there were the unusual arrangements – in the Cinema Olympia (1913) and in Casa Lazzara (1919) – of a rigorous precision of typology and distribution combined with the decorative exuberance of the urban façade, that allowed Fichera to hint at the subtle connection between 18th century caprice and rationalism, that strongly characterised the city of Catania. Starting in the 1920’s, Catania and its Baroque style became the ideal reference and the concrete grounds for a passionate research on the identity of its (own) architecture and on traditional construction principles. The architect did not operate a biased refusal of the new models offered by an international culture, to which he kept a watchful eye; he was only diffident, instead, of Italian architects whose hurried and mechanic adaptation of the “latest fashion”, often mistook modernity with a “spasm of originality that, with the extremists of the group, often borders on the grotesque” (Fichera 1935). He was also irritated that new architecture materials were superimposed or substituted “without a thought” to lessons of “mimesis of Nature” imparted by classical architecture. It was still possible for Fichera to be innovative and respectful of tradition; it was possible to be “authentic” and at the same time to be integrated within the international culture dynamic. This had always happened in Sicily where architecture has “its own stylistic expressions”, since the homes, as well as the cities must be made to the measure and image of those who inhabit them, that is, they must “resemble themselves”. Here, Fichera appears to be more expressive and convincing, not when his architecture repeats tradition, as it occurred with the erudite references to Borromini with Villa Jnga (1924-27) in Genoa, but rather when he knows how “to remain within tradition” (Fichera 1935) with original works like “Casa sulla lava” or the nearby Villa Musco (1930) in Catania, where the interplay of the roof-terraces takes from the echoes of the cusp of Collegiata and from the spiral shaped bell towers that stand out from the historical centre of Catania. It is trough architecture’s originality/relevance that tradition can insinuate itself upon modernity. For Fichera, the discourse is completed through the recognition that, just as Baroque was not anti-classical but rather “Classicism ablaze” (Fichera 1934) so then rationalism “coming from an anti-classical northern and eastern Europe” must be “ignited within Volcano’s fire” to make it more Mediterranean and give it more of a “classical temperature”. Fichera’s rationalism, “not made up of constrictions, renunciations” can distil “German” suggestions in the Palazzina Mirone (1937) in Catania; or stretch Piacentini’s monumental frames over the flat façade of Palazzo Ferro (1940?): here they reproduce, reversing the typical Etna dual tones, that giant order over a very high base structure to support an incongruous crowning frame that is the trademark of the historic centre’s 18th century palaces. The Catania Tribunal is the last work, the one that concretely translates Fichera’s theory of “exalted rationalism”: the off-scaleness that still echoes the University City by Piacentini in Rome, which loses all rhetorical gloom and refines itself in the encounter with the elegant styles of the last works by Hoffmann, trough which Fichera resolved the imposing urban front in a “stoà” with very high and very thin pillars recalling Hellenic memory. In one of his last reflections on the “true profundity of Sicilian matrix” in continuous research for a synthesis between international and autochthonous elements, between innovation and tradition, Fichera wrote that, on the island, artists “resemble one another, they imitate each other, they echo, through their expressions , some common elements, blossoming in the climate of the times and therefore in accordance with the predilections of the masses; and this inasmuch as what they take from the outside is re-elaborated on the inside”; and upon this palimpsest, we too can and must go back to writing.
Fichera ha attraversato le tensioni dell’architettura del ‘900, dal liberty del progetto romano di Villa Ghirlandina (1907) al razionalismo “esaltato” del Tribunale di Catania (1936-1953); dando testimonianza di come suggestioni internazionali e spirito di rinnovamento possano essere praticati senza tradire le proprie radici culturali. Le regole di “firmitas” di un esatto costruire -ereditate dalla Tradizione che sente come patrimonio genetico (il padre Filadelfo, ingegnere, è professore di Ornato nell’Università di Catania)- sono da lui costantemente confrontate alle esigenze d’economicità e funzionalità di una moderna “utilitas”; alla ricerca di un superamento della crisi dei valori tradizionali operata dal cemento armato proprio sul piano della “firmitas”, una crisi che si può paragonare a quanto era già avvenuto sul piano della “venustas” con ‘l’ibrida mescolanza di elementi tratti da ogni epoca’. Per Fichera occorre riconoscere la crisi; e sviluppare l’innovazione non fuori, ma all’interno della tradizione, per ritrovare con ‘un ideale da esprimere’ anche il ‘mezzo costruttivo per esprimere’ (Fichera 1935). Questa riflessione sui valori del Nuovo era stata avviata dal suo maestro E. Basile, attraverso il linguaggio floreale che superava l’abuso degli stili: non con la loro cancellazione, ma riconducendoli al principio della Natura. A questo insegnamento si riferisce Fichera: rivolgimenti, ma nella Tradizione; stili, ma dentro la Natura; ed a questo si ispirano le prime architetture che Fichera realizza a Catania: da Villa Miranda (1908-09), ancora vicina alla lezione del maestro palermitano; ad opere già stilizzate, come Villa Vagliasindi (1911), con le quali esplora l’orizzonte internazionale, ammirando il rigore di Wagner nel rinnovare la Tradizione, e mirando alle lineari geometrie con cui Hoffmann superava le vegetali mollezze dell’Art Nouveau. Ma è infine Olbrich, ‘il genialissimo architetto austriaco, la cui vitalità è stata un fiammeggiare rapido e violento’ (Fichera 1914) a suggerirgli come declinare sinuosità floreali entro configurazioni volumetriche vigorose; che nell’opera di Fichera si traducono in sperimentazioni contraddittorie ma originali: da un lato, le terse impaginazioni di Villa Simili (1909) o dello Sporting Club (1913) sposano impianti stereometrici forti, e gli permettono di recuperare (attraverso Vienna) la tradizione arabo-mediterranea dell’architettura siciliana; dall’altro, la combinazione, nella Casa Lazzara (1919), fra una struttura di rigorosa precisione tipologico-distributiva e l’esuberanza decorativa del fronte urbano, gli consente di alludere al connubio di razionalismo e capriccio settecentesco che caratterizza Catania. Appunto Catania e il suo Barocco diventano, a partire dagli anni venti, il riferimento ideale ed il terreno concreto di una ricerca sull’identità della (propria) architettura e sui principi costruttivi della Tradizione. Non lo anima un rifiuto pregiudiziale dei nuovi modelli offerti dalla cultura internazionale, alla quale continuerà a guardare con interesse; lo sgomenta, invece, negli architetti italiani quel frettoloso adeguamento “all’ultima moda” che fraintendeva la modernità con uno ‘spasimo di originalità, che negli estremisti confina col grottesco’ (Fichera 1935); lo irrita che i nuovi materiali d’architettura vengano sostituiti ‘senza un pensiero’ alla lezione di “mimesi della Natura” che impartiva l’architettura classica. E’ possibile -per Fichera- essere innovativi e rispettosi della Tradizione, è possibile essere “autentici” e al tempo stesso integrati nella cultura internazionale; è sempre successo, in Sicilia: dove l’architettura ha ‘espressioni stilistiche proprie’ alla regione ed al suo popolo, perché le case come le città devono essere fatte a misura e immagine di chi le abita, devono “somigliare a se stesse”. E’ il programma di Fichera per Catania: dove le sue architetture porgono la lezione internazionale configurandola sui modelli “ctonii” della rifondazione urbana operata dal Vaccarini nel ‘700. L’originalità della scrittura autografa è la necessaria garanzia per una tradizione che vuole restare “attuale”, senza rifiutare (come fanno i Moderni) quell’ordine delle somiglianze che lega padri e figli. Fichera riesce tanto più convincente non quando la sua architettura “ricalca” la tradizione, come succede con gli eruditi riferimenti borrominiani della Villa Jnga (1924-27) a Genova; ma quando sa rimanere nella tradizione con opere originali come la Casa sulla lava o la vicina Villa Musco (1930): dove il gioco delle altane riprende l’eco dei campanili spiraliformi che spiccano dal centro storico di Catania. Attraverso l’originalità/attualità delle architetture la Tradizione può insinuarsi nella Modernità, la Memoria può farsi progetto operativo; perché il lavoro di Fichera si manifesta infine come un grande “disegno” a formare la realtà, allo stesso modo che un Vaccarini o un Battaglia sapevano governare il progetto urbano, ciascuno ‘attraverso le numerose opere che andò disseminando attorno al nucleo della città risorta’ (Fichera 1933). Ora la città risorta è la città moderna, risorta appunto dal ‘mar morto ottocentesco’ (Fichera 1934); è Catania che si rispecchia nelle radici fondative della ricostruzione sulla “tabula rasa” del terremoto 1693, come la città moderna sorge dalla “tabula rasa” degli stili. L’elemento fondativo di tanta armonia fu (e continua ad essere per Fichera) proprio l’elemento “primigenio” dell’architettura: il muro innalzato dai materiali naturali del luogo, il muro che con la sua consistenza plastica si oppone alla consuetudine costruttiva elastico-lignea che nel Razionalismo privilegia quali elementi di sostegno pilastri e pilotis. Nella tradizione catanese gli architetti si sono attenuti alla lezione plastico-muraria: perché ‘la immanente rimembranza della catastrofe li rendeva alieni dall’applicazione di elementi isolati quali i pilastri e le colonne’ (Fichera 1925); e soprattutto perché hanno saputo riconoscere un sentire mediterraneo nel quale ‘progettare significa versare il proprio pensiero in ispeciale attitudine - reso cioè plastico dalla ispirazione’ (Fichera 1935). Così la riflessione sul barocco catanese può concludersi in una riflessione sull’architettura moderna: il cerchio si chiude, per Fichera, attraverso il riconoscimento che come il Barocco non fu anticlassico, ma fu un ‘classico fiammeggiante’ (Fichera 1934); così il Razionalismo ‘di provenienza nordeuropea e orientale, anticlassico’ deve essere ‘riscaldato al fuoco del Vulcano’ per farsi mediterraneo e diventare anch’esso una ‘temperatura del classico’. Questa è l’unica via d’uscita alla ‘attuale crisi stilistica’: da una parte, riconoscere la ‘azione energica, rivulsiva ma, diciamolo francamente, anche purificatrice’ del Razionalismo; dall’altra, rifiutare il ‘dominio livellatore del nuovo meccanismo costruttivo’, dell’onnipresente cemento armato che ‘non ha patria come le pietre e i marmi’ (Fichera 1934). L’adesione critica ai temi del Razionalismo determina la produzione di opere originali e problematiche, per la forte ibridazione dei linguaggi sperimentati. Trova una felice sintesi tra Déco e Razionalismo, attraverso incursioni nel classicismo nordico col Cinema Blu (1929), e nella metafisica con la Casa Pico-Magnano (1933); ma è nella seconda metà degli anni trenta, con la conclusione dei lavori per l’Istituto Archimede che Fichera mette a punto la formula di un Razionalismo ‘sano e classico’: superando l’aura del barocco catanese a favore della dimensione astratta della razionalità costruttiva settecentesca, cui riesce a saldare la ricerca di arcaicità mediterranee. Il Tribunale di Catania è l’ultima opera, che traduce concretamente la sua teoria del “Razionalismo esaltato”: il fuori-scala ancora risonante della Città Universitaria di Roma perde ogni retorica e si ingentilisce nell’incontro con le eleganti stilizzazioni dell’ultimo Hoffmann, attraverso le quali Fichera risolve l’imponente fronte urbano in uno stoà dagli altissimi esilissimi pilastri di ellenistica memoria; presentando una sintesi finale di quella sua ricerca spesa al confronto tra elementi internazionali e autoctoni, fra innovazione e tradizione.
CATANIA. STILE DI FRANCESCO FICHERA
ARCIDIACONO, Giuseppe Carlo
2006-01-01
Abstract
Fichera traversed the tension of 20th century architecture, in an exemplary manner, from the Liberty style of the Roman project of Villa Ghirlandina (1907) to the “exalted rationalism” of the project for the Tribunal in Catania (1936-53); proposing significant testimony as to how international suggestion and renewal can be practiced without betraying ones own cultural roots. He was a “classic” architect in the Vitruvian sense; the rules of “firmitas” and of precise building methods, inherited from a “tradition” that he recognized as his genetic heritage (having a father, Filadelfo, who was a successful engineer and a professor of ornate style decoration at the University of Catania) constantly occupied him in his inquisitive research of the economy and functionality of a modern “utilitas”. He needed, above all, to develop innovation within, rather than outside, tradition in order to also discover a “constructive means of expression” along with “an ideal to express” (Fichera 1935). This necessary reflection on the world of forms, regarding the values of the “new”, had been encouraged by his master Ernesto Basile, through a floral language that overcame the abuse of styles, not through their cancellation but by bringing them back to the elementary principle of nature. The first architectural projects that Fichera realized in Catania were inspired by this epochal progress: from Villa Miranda (1908-09), still reflecting the lessons of his Palermo master, to the more stylized works, like Villa Vagliasindi (1911) and Villa Majorana (1911-13), with which he explored the international horizon, admiring Wagner’s rigour in renovating tradition through a controlled opening-up to the modern Jugendstil, and aiming towards the linear geometries that Hoffmann used to overcome the vegetal suppleness of Art Nouveau stiffening it in orthogonal coordinates. Il was however Olbrich, “the genius Austrian architect, whose vitality was a violent and furious blaze” (Fichera 1914) who gave Fichera clear indications of how to decline floral sinuosity within vigorous volumetric configurations. In Fichera’s work, such volumes were often translated into contradictory, but always original, experiments. On one side, there were the terse layouts of Villa Simili (1909) and the Sporting Club (1913) that combined well with strong stereometric outline plans, allowing him to recover (through Vienna’s lessons) an ancient Mediterranean-arabesque tradition of Sicilian architecture, without falling into the trap of an apparent revival. On the other side, there were the unusual arrangements – in the Cinema Olympia (1913) and in Casa Lazzara (1919) – of a rigorous precision of typology and distribution combined with the decorative exuberance of the urban façade, that allowed Fichera to hint at the subtle connection between 18th century caprice and rationalism, that strongly characterised the city of Catania. Starting in the 1920’s, Catania and its Baroque style became the ideal reference and the concrete grounds for a passionate research on the identity of its (own) architecture and on traditional construction principles. The architect did not operate a biased refusal of the new models offered by an international culture, to which he kept a watchful eye; he was only diffident, instead, of Italian architects whose hurried and mechanic adaptation of the “latest fashion”, often mistook modernity with a “spasm of originality that, with the extremists of the group, often borders on the grotesque” (Fichera 1935). He was also irritated that new architecture materials were superimposed or substituted “without a thought” to lessons of “mimesis of Nature” imparted by classical architecture. It was still possible for Fichera to be innovative and respectful of tradition; it was possible to be “authentic” and at the same time to be integrated within the international culture dynamic. This had always happened in Sicily where architecture has “its own stylistic expressions”, since the homes, as well as the cities must be made to the measure and image of those who inhabit them, that is, they must “resemble themselves”. Here, Fichera appears to be more expressive and convincing, not when his architecture repeats tradition, as it occurred with the erudite references to Borromini with Villa Jnga (1924-27) in Genoa, but rather when he knows how “to remain within tradition” (Fichera 1935) with original works like “Casa sulla lava” or the nearby Villa Musco (1930) in Catania, where the interplay of the roof-terraces takes from the echoes of the cusp of Collegiata and from the spiral shaped bell towers that stand out from the historical centre of Catania. It is trough architecture’s originality/relevance that tradition can insinuate itself upon modernity. For Fichera, the discourse is completed through the recognition that, just as Baroque was not anti-classical but rather “Classicism ablaze” (Fichera 1934) so then rationalism “coming from an anti-classical northern and eastern Europe” must be “ignited within Volcano’s fire” to make it more Mediterranean and give it more of a “classical temperature”. Fichera’s rationalism, “not made up of constrictions, renunciations” can distil “German” suggestions in the Palazzina Mirone (1937) in Catania; or stretch Piacentini’s monumental frames over the flat façade of Palazzo Ferro (1940?): here they reproduce, reversing the typical Etna dual tones, that giant order over a very high base structure to support an incongruous crowning frame that is the trademark of the historic centre’s 18th century palaces. The Catania Tribunal is the last work, the one that concretely translates Fichera’s theory of “exalted rationalism”: the off-scaleness that still echoes the University City by Piacentini in Rome, which loses all rhetorical gloom and refines itself in the encounter with the elegant styles of the last works by Hoffmann, trough which Fichera resolved the imposing urban front in a “stoà” with very high and very thin pillars recalling Hellenic memory. In one of his last reflections on the “true profundity of Sicilian matrix” in continuous research for a synthesis between international and autochthonous elements, between innovation and tradition, Fichera wrote that, on the island, artists “resemble one another, they imitate each other, they echo, through their expressions , some common elements, blossoming in the climate of the times and therefore in accordance with the predilections of the masses; and this inasmuch as what they take from the outside is re-elaborated on the inside”; and upon this palimpsest, we too can and must go back to writing.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
