2017/

1

ISBN 978-888-368-165-3

Ines Tolic

Pag. 59-

87

, DOI 10.17426/72385

Keywords: Modern Stores; Urban Modernization; Economic Crisis; “Domus”; “La Casa bella”

After the economic crisis of 1929 and in the attempt to attenuate its effects, architects
started to transform commercial spaces with the goals to reduce maintenance costs and to attract
customers with the stylistic novelty. Soon afterwards, professional periodicals like “Domus” and
“La Casa bella” started to look with great interest at architectural solutions designed for commercial
purposes, considering them as exemplifications of modernity and of the most updated
aesthetic tendencies. Resorting to architectural journals and archival documents, this work aims at
critically and historically framing the debate about stores during the economic crisis, considering
them as occasions for architectural experimentation and agents of urban transformation.