Futurisme is an originally Italian art movement of poets, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians and filmmakers. It was granted a short life, from 1909 to 1914, and fitted into the war enthusiasm on the eve of the First World War.
Sant’Elia, out of nationalist feelings, joined the army as a volunteer even before Italy became involved in WW I, and was killed in 1916. He made many sketches for his Città Nuova, a metropolitan project with skyscrapers, terraces, bridges for all kinds of traffic, stations, airports and power plants. The city is fully built up, coherent, with many layers that are interconnected. In the elaborated drawings it is noticeable that he used decorative elements à la Wiener Secession. But most of the sketches are beginnings. They show pure volumes with a great richness of forms. Above all the curved and the slanting planes inspired the modernist and especially the expressionist architects.
