| Popis: |
The second half of the 1950s was characterized by gradual opening of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia towards the western countries. Among other treaties, this period was marked by the Memorandum of Understanding of London (1954), regulating the Istrian question (until that moment, Istrian peninsula was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia in zones A and B). Within this political context, the paper aims to investigate the relations between Italy and Yugoslavia, concerning interlinked topics such as conservation, restoration, urban planning and adaptations in historic towns. We intend to focus our attention and interest on the International Congress Attualità urbanistica del monumento e dell’ambiente antico, held in Milan in September 1957 on occasion of the XI Triennale. This conference, organized by Roberto Pane, represents an interesting and important moment of debate and “cultural transfer” between the West and the East, due to the presence of professionals coming from Italy, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, United States and Yugoslavia. The attendance of architects and urbanists from Yugoslavia (Bruno Milić, Branislav Kojić, Tomislav Marasović, Zdenko Sila and Fran Šijanec) represented their first open exchange with Italian professionals. Each of the participants proposed case studies from their homeland, in order to compare simultaneous but different reactions to similar problems of modernity, such as the destructive legacy of Second World War in historic towns, caused especially by bombings. They also discussed traffic congestion, tourism, transformations of existing surroundings to new and modern requirements, and the extension of the concept of monument to the environment. What emerges is the common purpose of protection of historic town centers, pressured at that moment by speculation and uncertain methods of intervention. |
