Fascism and rationalism

Fascist architecture and rationalist architecture look alike - they developed after all more or less in the same years. Anyway this resemblance is very superficial. In fact the architecture of Le Corbuser, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe is rational not or not only because it employs simple shapes with no decoration - parallelepipeds, cubes - but above all because it is functional  - buildings should be "machines for living".

But fascists building are all but machines for living. They must impress and terrify, not be friendly. Huge staircaases, disproportionate volumes, a tendence to be higher than large. The style is the same - blocks, rows of frameless windows - but the meaning is opposite.

Of course, this doesn't mean that a few examples fo this architecture can be aesthetically pleasnt - for instance the "Palazzo della civiltà del lavoro" that is discussed in another post (http://castorphans.blogspot.it/2011/03/colosseo-quadrato.html) or the astounding "Casa del Fascio" in Como.