Proportion as immutable principle, five hundred years since Alberti’s formulations, constitutes the first compositional reference in architecture, rule of instruction, inspiration factor, and design control. Those same proportions, that for Viollet-le-Duc depend on the “rules of geometry”, perhaps make up the element that most clearly manifests the “continuity of the classic” and the permanence of that value system that ​​subterraneously, as is repeatedly shown in this study, coexists with adherence to the modern and the search for rationality that characterizes the experience of the twenties and thirties in Italy.

Laura Andreini (1964) graduated from the Architecture Faculty of Florence in 1990, completing her PhD at the same university in 1997. In 1988 she founded the Archea firm together with Marco Casamonti and Giovanni Polazzi. She has, over the years, combined her activities as an architect and teacher with an intense work of in-depth research and critical reflection in the field of architecture. She has since 2003 held the position of vice editor in chief of the “area” magazine.