Adalberto Libera (1903-1963) is among the most important architects of the Italian twentieth century. On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, a series of events was held in Cagliari to commemorate his activity and his presence in the city after World War II. Adalberto Libera resumed his activity as a designer at a particularly delicate moment in national history; after an obligatory professional stagnation, new political events demanded from professionals houses for those who had lost them in the bombings and to meet the demands of the new flow of urbanization. Libera is ready for these demands, his experience in the field of residences is consolidated, his research on the functional technique of living and previous projects for housing project him into other experimental fields, where the Tuscolano housing unit in Rome (1950-53) proves to be among the most important works of the 1950s, a period in which Cagliari also rises to prominence with two of his fundamental works: the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno pavilion at the Cagliari fair and the IEEP buildings on Via Pessina in Cagliari.
The fair pavilion, despite its ephemeral type, is one of architect Libera’s most beautiful works. Even today it can be recognized as the result of advanced research of reinforced concrete structures, structures that hold themselves in function with the space that surrounds them, perfect harmony between calculation and aesthetic beauty.
The Pessina Street dwellings, in the development of the “garden city” concept, are among the most rational dwellings built in the postwar period on newly developed areas. The project was born on particularly new building and housing rules and can still be an example of study from the rationalization of the floor plan to that of the distribution of interior spaces.
