From Muratori to Caniggia: the origins and development of the Italian school of design typology

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the development of the ideas of the Italian school of design typology. In the case of the two leading contributors to that school, the fact that one (Saverio Muratori) taught the other (Gianfranco Caniggia) is a dominant theme. However, as in the history of ideas more generally, it is difficult to trace the various influences on the thinking of these key individuals. Ideas about culture, philosophy and architecture that were circulating in Italy, in particular in the 1920s and 1930s, helped to stimulate Muratori's fundamental conceptions of architectural organism, type, tissue and built environment, urban development process, territory and active history.