On 24 and 25 May, following the success of previous editions, the doors of Palazzo dell'Aeronautica opened once again to over 450 visitors for Open House Rome 2025, an initiative that for over 10 years has allowed the curious and enthusiasts free access to hundreds of Roman buildings.
Open House Roma is an annual event that celebrates design and architecture in the Capital over a single weekend, and was born from the idea of a group of architects and communicators focused on socio-cultural innovation; experts and professionals in the cultural heritage sector, the group includes PhD holders, architects, cultural operators, artists and digital communicators, who share a project founded on the concept of the common good as a driving force for a new economy that places the environment, culture and community at its centre. By participating in this event, the Italian Air Force once again wished to contribute to initiatives based on education, knowledge and the protection of the country's historical, artistic and architectural heritage.
The monumental Palazzo dell'Aeronautica was commissioned by the then Minister of the Royal Air Force (1926-1933) Italo Balbo, who turned to a 28-year-old architect, Roberto Marino, for its design. Work was completed in just two years, making the building the first in Italy to be constructed entirely of reinforced concrete. The building is designed with broad, confident lines to emphasise, in keeping with the intentions of the era, the characteristics of a modern Rome. The interior was conceived with novel criteria: large halls (instead of the old cellular system) where officials“ desks are aligned; partition walls made largely of transparent glass to separate the halls from the corridors connecting them; and vast dimensions and imposing proportions (the building in fact covers an area of approximately 8,000 square metres). Simplicity and elegance are also evident in the decorative elements, which are unobtrusive yet significant, such as the door handles stylised to resemble an airfoil profile, or the motif of the ”command staff"—at the time a distinctive emblem of pilot officers—which is repurposed as an elegant and sober embellishment for the metal railings of the Staircase of Honour, the glass doors of the Halls of Heroes and Clouds, and even featured in the imposing covers of the radiators installed near the Halls of Honour.
The “Sala Italia”, the “Sala Europa” and the “Sala delle Cartine” are expertly frescoed with geographical, astronomical and historical wall paintings. The last of the three aforementioned rooms, in particular, commemorates the two Atlantic Cruises led by Balbo himself in 1930 and 1933, to Brazil and the United States respectively. The three rooms constituted the three antechambers providing access to Italo Balbo's small office – on the wall of which was the inscription “Beyond destiny”, almost as if to emphasise the importance of the visit to the minister, loading them with expectation, for the Heads of State invited to the Palazzo. The functionality of the Palazzo was further highlighted by the continuous-cycle lifts, lift paternoster (consisting of two adjoining and parallel columns of cabins – designed to accommodate two people – stacked on top of each other and in slow, continuous motion, one going up, the other going down; at each serviced floor, two openings – one for each direction of travel – allow users to step on or off the moving cabin “on the fly”) and the “pneumatic post” system, which, in an innovative way and at a time when e-mail was a distant reality in the future, allowed for immediate communication between the various rooms of the building.
