Giovanni Muzio e il progetto per il "Villaggio SAFFA" a Pontenuovo di Magenta (MI), 1954-1962

Between the 1950s and the 1960s the Società Italiana Fabbriche Fiammiferi e Affini (SAFFA) entrusted the Milanese architect Giovanni Muzio (1893-1982) with the design of some public buildings intended for the working community of the industrial settlement of Pontenuovo di Magenta, in the province of Milan. The initiative, materialized in a small company town, offered Muzio the opportunity to look at similar episodes in Northern Europe, making the village of Pontenuovo an emblematic case of reception of the design culture of Germany, Scandinavia, and the Baltic regions in the Italian context. Through the analysis of archival sources and unpublished documents, the contribution focuses on the genesis of the settlement and on Muzio’s architectures, highlighting the links with possible Nordic and Germanic models and drawing attention to the condition of decay and abandonment in which the settlement has been lying since 2005, when SAFFA ceased its activity.