The Failed Giant

This monstrous concrete skeleton in Milano Marittima is a monument to Italian Rationalism. Built in 1937 by Mario Loreti, the Colonia Varese was designed to house thousands of children, physically hardening them in line with Fascist ideology. Strict geometry meets the wild Adriatic here. But the utopia did not last long. The colossus has stood empty since the 1960s. Where discipline and order once ruled, decay, graffiti, and the salty sea air now reign, slowly eating away at the reinforced concrete.