La 167 e le città italiane: un bilancio storiografico

The article discusses the ways in which the Italian historiography on post-World War II cities, architecture and housing policies has discussed Law 167 of 1962 on affordable and social housing and its consequences. Despite the importance of this measure for the history of housing in Italian cities, there is a lack of reconstructions to date to measure its overall impact. The history of «167» housing schemes in Italy has often been absorbed within sectoral histories (of public policy, housing, architecture), following an articulation of historical work that mirrors an increasing specialization of professional fields related to the built environment. Moreover, since the implementation of the law was left to the choices made over time by individual municipalities, an important part of the history of 167 complexes has been reconstructed through local studies (urban monographs, stories of neighborhoods), thus reinforcing the tendency of a part of Italian urban history to prefer investigations of individual cities over comparative studies. The history of «167» housing complexes presents a number of open questions that it may be useful to address in order to better situate the Italian case within international histories of mass housing and urban design.