The Design of Reconstruction

Italians in Lausanne (1944-1950)

Abstract

Technical culture, the role of the designer and the organization of work are crucial issues in the debate on reconstruction. After September 8, 1943, in Switzerland, this reflection affects many areas of the project as the publication of the «Bulletin of the Research Center», from June 1944 to April 1945, in part returns. Gustavo Colonnetti, the liberal Catholic engineer from Turin and rector of the University of Lausanne, becomes a constant reference, from 1943 until the second half of the fifties, to a culture that distinguishes technique as one of the founding values ​​of the reconstruction of the house and destroyed cities, but also the family as the core social, economic and cultural life of the community.