Unheard workers: Behind a foreign diplomatic architecture of the 1960s in Rome.

The scientific relevance is related, content-wise, to the need to investigate, historically, the contemporary export dynamics of architectural production. The project frames three buildings that embody, for their ontological function, the same cross-cultural dynamics that have allowed domestic 'islands' to be built into hosting foreign contexts since post-war. Method-wise, the project reappraises dominant architectural historiographies including diversity and social justice (i.e. labour and class disparity) as new keys of research. The research, in fact, argues that the establishment of the foreign diplomatic architecture was strongly conditioned by hosting Italian materials, people, and labour practices: though these have been, so far, neglected circumstances by historians.

In order to attain its goal, the project states its historical background in those cross-cultural histories of architecture that happened in the latter half of the twentieth century. The method of research proposed are 'archival review' and 'oral history'. For the first one, it will investigate archival materials that have not been explored yet but that are crucial to cast new lights on the current field (e.g. bilateral agreements, building site minutes, correspondences, fax, photos, tender contracts, et al.). For the second one, when practicable, interviews will be conducted with those people that can tell about the occupancy and construction of buildings, adding new layers of comprehension through personal anecdotes and private correspondences.