Guidonia, una città nuova per i lavoratori civili e militari del Centro Studi ed Esperienze dell’Aeronautica

In 1928, the Higher Studies and Experiment Direction (DSSE) of the Italian Royal Air Force had been established near Rome closer to the small village of Montecelio, where an air force base had already existed since 1916. In 1935 the Government inaugurated, in the same place, a new, extremely advanced, research centre for aeronautical, scientific and industrial development. The centre was set up as a small independent town, where to place an interesting series of buildings: the wind tunnels and the hydrodynamic basin for testing prototypes. Nowadays, even if in ruins, the structures still maintain a certain dignity because of their historical and technical worth. The site is also interesting because of the presence of the functionalist “new town” closely linked to the centre. The new town, named Guidonia, was designed as a well-organized company town for civil and military workers and their families. This kind of interpretation, certainly unconventional, is also suggested by the original will of the government in founding Guidonia. Instead of planning a military complex with houses for the military personnel assigned to the centre, the government decided to establish a new town. They drew up the plans for the layout of the residential housing and public buildings, responding to the needs of a well-definedsocial group made up of both military personnel and civilians.