Il Girasole

Nicknamed the sunflower, probably derived from the plan organization and the petal-like extensions which open -sunflower-like- to one side of the building, 2 large apartments per floor, spread outward from an interior courtyard. The street façade is remarkable as an abstract surface turned, like a sunflower, to face the south sun. The façade contains contradictory illusions. The vertical cleft which reveals the depth of the courtyard within, with right and left sides misaligned at the top, would seem to invite the absolution of planer surface but does just the opposite. Built in a district of apartment blocks, it had to respond to the same zoning limitations. Moretti's reputation was established by 1936 when, at the age of 29, he designed the fencing hall at Mussolini's heroic new sports centre for Rome, the Foro Italico, an exercise in rationalist design during the Fascist period. Later work reveal an architect preoccupied with "organic" building forms and ideas.