La rilettura di Gio Ponti nelle pubblicazioni sovietiche

This article describes the reception of Gio Ponti’s architecture in soviet architectural culture after Stalin’s death. The main part of this article is an analysis of soviet publications about Ponti between 1950-1975, with particular attention given to the translation of Amate l’architettura published in Mastera architekturi ob arhitekture (Masters of architecture about architecture). It is observed that Ponti’s works and writings are heavily and carefully selected and modified according to soviet interests and thinking. For example, no private villa or religious building is described in any of the publications regarding Ponti, instead, a great deal of attention is focused on his social housing in Harar street in Milano, which is generally considered in Western Europe as a minor work: Ponti’s architecture is displayed as far as it concerns themes that are interesting for the soviet public, namely, social housing and office buildings. Furthermore, a detailed comparison between Amate l’architettura and its Russian translation reveals how the text is manipulated in such a way it loses much of its poetical and contradictory features, and becomes more similar to a logical and sequential discourse. Furthermore, the themes of the Amate l’architettura are reassembled to fit within the contemporary soviet architectural debate: the role of architecture in a technological world. In a historical period were the immense industrialized mass housing development of Soviet Union was seriously menacing the existence of architecture as an independent profession, Ponti’s words open a possibility for Soviet architects towards a new way, where the discipline is seen as an autonomous art, with specific competences, able to connect the socialist modernist dream with the study of architectural traditions, which are a very important feature of Soviet architectural education. Ponti’s idea of humanism in architecture and the notion of “Civiltà delle macchine” are well suited to Soviet modern conception of the city. Although is very difficult to define a phisical influence of Ponti’s architecture in specific Soviet architectural objects, nevertheless, there are some planning and aesthetic approaches that suggest a connection, such as The Zeleny Lug district in Minsk, the New Arbat complex in Moscow, and the ZDT building in Moscow. The incorrect translation of Gio Ponti appears to be somehow necessary to make it understandable and applicable in the soviet context.