Salento Moderno

Salento Moderno brings together a range of private homes built since the 1950s in Salento, in the area to the south of Lecce: single and double-family dwellings which, in terms of quality and variety, represent a unique example of spontaneity and aesthetic anarchy on the Italian architectural panorama. The study is carried out with the contribution of three photographers and two historians of architecture, and examines a highly peculiar phenomenon from an unusual perspective. In Southern Salento, in the area lying between Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca, Porto Cesareo on the Ionian Sea and San Foca on the Adriatic coast, house construction is founded on a solid craft tradition which, in open contrast with any institutional architectural school, has led to the rise of eccentric, free and fluid approaches to architecture. Investigating private living and its relation to public space, the volume opens a broader reflection on taste, celebrating its variety and imaginative scope.