FANTASIA is a concept from Music we should pay attention to. It is our obligation to dream and to build our dreams. Mario Palanti, contemporary and friend of Sant' Elia, went to Buenos Aires in 1913. He built in Argentina the most amazing surreal stuff. His forms and spaces are sometimes eclectic or neoclassical, always organicist and innovative, like Pasaje Barolo (1923) or this project for a Tempo Votivo (1913). He was perhaps the last Romantic architect, he ignored Modernist's dogmas, but his spirit was modern indeed, and even more legitime: he knew how to build and respected the principles of architecture (materiality, proportion, scale, rejected by post-war modernism) Palanti believed we must leave a lasting message for coming generations, and he succeeded. Fantasia: 1. A fanciful composition observing no strict musical form. 2. A medley of various themes, usu. with brilliant variations and embellishments. Copyright © Patricio Pouchulu 2001 / Source: Funk & Wagnalls, Standard Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1969.

Picture: "Progetto di Tempio votivo alla Pace Universale", © Mario Palanti, circa 1913, from "Prima Esposizione Personale D'Architettura vella Republica Argentina, Arch. M. Palanti", Milano 1917.