1. Introduction

Giovanni Michelucci 1891-1990

Giovanni Michelucci was seventy-three years of age when his design for the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista was completed in 1964. Located at the "Firenze Nord" junction of the "Autostrada del Sole" (Motorway to the Sun) on the outskirts of Florence, the "Chiesa dell'Autostrada", as it has become known, is arguably his most famous work. It was by no means his last building or project as he continued working with a prolific output until only shortly before his death in 1990, four days prior to his hundredth birthday.

History books also remember Michelucci as the chief architect of Florence's railway terminal, completed twenty-nine years earlier in 1935. Reviewed alongside the church his apparent adhesion to such diverse stylistic experiments is somewhat disconcerting and it is hard to believe that they were the fruits of the same architect's labours. The station is, after all, still regarded as one of the most important buildings of the Italian Rationalist era, whereas the church was seen by many as a flagship of the Italian Neo-Expressionist movement.3 Michelucci however resisted titles such as "Rationalist" or "Expressionist", preferring a description more along the lines of an "Architect for Mankind"4.

It should be noted that not a great deal has been written about Michelucci in English, even though one author referred to him as a "pioneer of modern architecture".5 He is usually referred to in isolation rather than in a context of Italian architecture, despite being a key figure throughout the twentieth century.

Firstly this dissertation aims to redefine Michelucci in the context of Italian architectural history. And to explore, through Michelucci's architecture and writings, the transition made from the period of fascism of the 1930s (when such buildings as Florence station were completed) to the beginning of the 1960s when the Chiesa dell'Autostrada was built. In particular it aims to explore apparent radical changes after the Second World War (that were to give rise to the Chiesa dell'Autostrada) through the re-examination of a text entitled "La Felicità dell'Architetto" of 1948. And finally to assess whether there was an architectural continuum; whether Michelucci was merely an eclectic or whether the church was actually a radical departure of thought.