Giovanni Muzio, Ca’Movina, Sirmione, Italy, 1937. (view on google maps) 

The Ca’Movina was Giovanni Muzio’s family house, mostly used for his vacations. Also called Villa Muzio, it is located in Sirmione, Brescia.

Giovanni Muzio was, in architecture, one of the initiators of the art movement ” Novecento ” and in general of the traditionalist movement that characterized the Italian architecture of the 20s and 30s, in rivalry with rationalism. The Novecento Italiano Movement was a “post-war” movement brought together by Sarfatti, Mussolini’s mistress at the time. It is therefore strongly associated with fascism and it’s ideology. Muzio is one of it’s main actors in architecture. It aimed to promote a renewed yet traditional italian art, with heavy use of classical elements.

Muzio’s private house was built in 1937, in the late Novecento Movement, and compared to his other projects it’s much simpler, less heavy. It is a small villa, so it can’t present the usual nonevent characteristics like heavy materials, enormous columns or classical elements. It is much more soft and simple.

References :

• Edilizia moderna : periodico trimestrale; N. 31 (lug.-set. 1939).Fondazione PIERO PORTALUPPI p. 10-33
• Carlo De Carli, Architettura, spazio primario: Storia e saggi architettura. HOEPLI EDITORE, 1982

Reviewed March 2017 by:

Sofiane Décombas-Deschamps

Darija Malesevic

Valentijn Veragten

Lode Borghs