ANTONIO SANT'ELIA

WHO IS HE?

Antonio Sant'Elia was an Italian architect and a key member of the Futurist
movement in architecture. He left behind almost no completed works of architecture
and is primarily remembered for his bold sketches and influence on modern
architecture.

Antonio Sant'Elia was born in Como, Lombardy. A builder by training, he opened a

design office in Milan in 1912 and became involved with the Futurist movement. A
nationalist as well as an irredentist, Sant'Elia joined the Italian army as Italy entered
World War I in 1915. He was killed during the Eighth Battle of the Isonzo, near Gorizia.
THE MANIFESTO OF FUTURIST ARCHITECTURE

The Manifesto of Futurist Architecture was published in August 1914, supposedly by

Sant'Elia, though this is subject to debate. In it, the author stated that "the decorative
value of Futurist architecture depends solely on the use and original arrangement of raw
or bare or violently colored materials“. His vision was for a highly industrialized and
mechanized city of the future, which he saw not as a mass of individual buildings but a
vast, multi-level, interconnected and integrated urban conurbation designed around the
"life" of the city.
 HIS PHILOSOPHY

According to Antonio Sant Elia, the futurist city should be mobile and dynamic in
every detail.

He says the lifts should no longer be hidden inside the building, it must scale the
lengths of facades.Roofs and underground spaces must be used.
 Antonio Sant Elia DESPISES:

•All classical architecture-decorative, monumental , pretty and pleasing

•Reconstruction and reproduction of ancient monuments and palaces

•The use of massive and costly materials

•Perpendicular and horizontal lines that are static

 He proclaims that:

•Futurist architecture is the architecture of reinforced concrete, steel, glass, cardboard,

textile fibre, wood substitutes, stone and brick that enable us to obtain maximum
elasticity and lightness.

•Oblique and elliptical lines are dynamic in nature and this cannot be achieved through
horizontal and perpendicular lines.

•The decorative value of futuristic architecture depends on the use of violently

coloured materials.

•Every generation must build its own city and this will contribute to the victory of
futurism.
 ITS INFLUENCE

His extremely influential designs featured vast monolithic skyscraper buildings with
terraces, bridges and aerial walkways that embodied the sheer excitement of modern
architecture and technology.

Even in this excitement for technology and modernity, in Sant'Elia'smonumentalism,

however, can be found elements of Art Nouveau architect Giuseppe Sommaruga.

Though most of his designs were never built but his futurist vision has influenced many.
Among architects he is cited as a forerunner to John Portman and Helmut Jahn.
HOUSE WITH EXTERNAL ELEVATORS (1914)

POWER STATION (1914)

THANK YOU

BY APARNA R, ATHIRA P S, ARCHA V, BHARAT, ANUKA , ANOOP