UNFINISHED ITALY

“Unfinished buildings have the charm of what might have been. Of what is not yet there. Of what might one day be there”.
(Inspired by “Le temps en rovine” by Marc Augé)

Stadiums without spectators, hospitals without patients, theatres without theatregoers.
Buildings in limbo between perfection and putrefaction, midway through their construction, an integral part of the Italian architectural landscape. Just look around to see how many unfinished buildings there are, concrete skeletons with no past and no future that just make our cities ever uglier.

 

 

This is unfinished Italy, the Italy that is left half-completed, the Italy that covers the whole country from North to South consisting of thousands of wasted Euros, thousands of concrete cubic metres that deface and disfigure our countryside.

868 uncompleted structures recorded in the “bel paese” in 2015.
Starting with Sicily that “boasts” the sad record of phantom buildings, moving on to Calabria in second place with 93 structures, and then on to Puglia, Sardinia and Lazio.
Much vaunted national works like the Sports City of Tor Vergata and the Matera-Venusio railway line. Works that have not even been 20% completed and finished works that are still as yet usable.

The only saving grace is the autonomous province of Trento where there are no unfinished buildings.

This is a virtual journey through the most significant Italian architectural style from the II World War to the present day, a tour that you can also discover through the register of unfinished Italian buildings, itself naturally incomplete, which at present lists 868 works with an uncertain future. Ruins whose future has already passed and whose present carries the taste of an eternal wait.

 

 

 
I have selected two decidedly interesting projects for this journey.
The first is “The Unfinished Country” by Angelo Antolino which immortalizes and tells the story of this unfinished Italy through its splendid photographs while the second is the trailer for the “Unfinished Italy” documentary by Benoit Felici.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Photo: Milan, June 2013. Rail Station | The Unfinished Country by Angelo Antolino