Staging Colonial Architecture. Architectural Representations and Imperial Propaganda in Fascist Magazines and Newsreels

This article focuses on the transmediality of architectural representations in the second half of the 1930s. Through an analysis of the emerging colonial built environment's media coverage, the essay argues that a meticulous staging of the new architecture built overseas was intended to provide an effective showcase for the myth of the rebirth of Italian imperial power. The cases analysed from Italian-occupied Libya show that the proliferation of representations of rationalist architecture constructed an idealised image of the urban development that projected the image of a unified, modern, and rational empire. In Italian East Africa, architecture further became a powerful iconographic agent whose representation was used to reinforce colonial stereotypes and facilitate racist measures to establish Italian supremacy. Overall, this media coverage suggests the construction of a unified and coherent narrative designed to illustrate the Italianisation of the colonies' promises and win popular consensus.