De Dominicis, Filippo <br/><br/>
Bureaucracy Designs Mazzocchi Alemanni and Rossi-Doria’s Approaches to Rurality and Regional Planning: 1946–55 

 -  2024.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Italian discourse on planning turned to regionalism as a model. Architects and planners sought substantial alternatives in urban design. Fascinated by the US examples, they emphasized the need for establishing a cooperative and democratic process of planning which could involve the urban and the rural simultaneously. On the other hand, providers of US aid for post-war reconstruction urged the Italian technical bureaucracy to explore new forms of regional development that, in line with the overseas experience, could reclaim the landscape of Southern Italy from its structural backwardness and provide the design tools for an overall land reform. Against this contrasting background, two river basin authorities in the Lucania region started updating their old development plans to obtain funds from US agencies. This paper highlights an obscure case study, with the aim of presenting and understanding some of the key aspects of the Italian discourse on rurality and regional planning. It deals with the work of the Metaponto and Bradano Valley Authorities and their consultants – the agrarian economist Manlio Rossi-Doria and the agrarian engineer Nallo Mazzocchi Alemanni – framing their key but often underestimated role in the multilayered Lucanian experience. Inscribed in the contemporary debate on land reform and resettlement, the pragmatic and technical stance of Rossi-Doria and Mazzocchi Alemanni would provide the foundation for the contested and multifaceted influence of the US models, and for the interweaving of contradictory ideologies deployed by intellectuals and activists who considered alternative forms of democratic planning.