A book edited by Stephanie Pilat, an OU Professor of Architecture, and Kay Bea Jones received praise in a recent review for the European Architectural History Network. The book, “Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture,” considers the reception and legacy of fascist architecture and urbanism in Italy. It investigates how these historic sites have been transformed and what constitutes the meaning of these buildings and cities today.
The essays include a rich array of new arguments by both senior and early career scholars from Italy and beyond. Francesco Cianfarani, assistant professor of Architecture, authored three of these essays and served as a section editor. The essays examine the reception of fascist architecture through studies of destruction and adaptation, debates over reuse, artistic interventions and routine daily practices.
The review was conducted by Laura Moure Cecchini, a professor at the University of Padua in Italy. According to Moure Cecchini, the book “unpacks the afterlives of fascist architecture on the Italian peninsula and in Italy’s former colonies in the Mediterranean and in the Horn of Africa.” In her review, she argues that the book is sure to be a “touchstone for those interested in the fate of buildings once the violent regime that sponsored them no longer exist, and in the diverse strategies used to both preserve and resignify them.”
A project designed by Gibbs College of Architecture faculty member Austin Lightle has been selected for BuildFest 2026, a national art and architecture festival held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.
Two Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumni are helping shape recommendations that could influence affordable housing design and construction across Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently welcomed Carl Siegel as an Architecture Librarian and Archivist and Assistant Professor. In his role, Siegel supports students, faculty and staff across the Gibbs College of Architecture while also serving as archivist for the American School of Architecture Archives.
