Pina (Giusi) Ciotoli (Ceccano 1986), architect, PhD, former researcher at Department DiAP, Sapienza University of Rome. Her research embraces architectural design theory, urban morphology and aesthetics. She is authored the books Dal Grattacielo al Tessuto Verticale, 2017; Kenzo Tange Gli anni della rivoluzione formale, 2021 with M. Falsetti; Faber, 2024.  

Carthago Delenda Est: these words of Cato the Censor give structure, strength and drama to the statement that best summarizes the folly behind an act of deliberate destruction. Even today, scholars of geopolitics and military science regard this phrase as the logical antecedent of total warfare, the modern concept of war that has been concretely developed and brought to its most lethal outcomes, especially in the last 100 years. The goal of this research is therefore to work within a specific time frame, 1945-2025, focusing on cities that have been (some unfortunately still are) theaters of war, real landscapes of desolation due to deliberate operations of annihilation. The book introduces an original reflection on the theme of war, focusing on the urban scenario, highlighting what has been suffered, and reflecting on the fact that the consequences, both for citizens and for urban spaces, do not end after the ceasefire. The insane will to erase a city develops over time, proceeding with violence and persistence, not with stratification but with continuous and constant subtraction. Organized in four sections – The Days Before the End, The Days After, Policies and Processes of Urban Reconstruction, and Architects from the Frontline – the book provides an overall picture of the theaters of war of the last 80 years (Berlin, Hiroshima, Sarajevo, Prishtina, Mariupol’, Kharkiv, Irpin’, Gaza) through a deliberately choral perspective.  

Foreword – À la guerre comme à la guerre, to reconstruction as to reconstruction, Rosalba Belibani – Ongoing | Going on Giusi Ciotoli – PART I - THE DAYS BEFORE THE END - On the Tabula Rasa. Some Reflections on the Voluntary Act of Destroying a City, Giusi Ciotoli – PART II - THE DAYS AFTER - Berlin Year Zero: Loss, Reconstruction and Memory, Marco Falsetti, Ash and Memory. Hiroshima after 1945, Giusi Ciotoli - From a Reconstruction to Another: Ukraine Urban Fears and Hopes, Fabien Bellat - Tracking the Urbicide in Gaza: Reflections on Framing and Methods Howayda Al-Harithy, Mariam Bazzi and Batoul Yassine – PART III - POLICIES AND PROCESSES OF URBAN RECON- STRUCTION - The Role of Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Adriano Olivetti in Reconstruction: Around their Vision of Postwar Reconstruction and Planning, Marianna Charitonidou – A City That Doesn’t Forget: Sarajevo Thirty Years after the Bosnian War, Sundus Al-Bayati – Post-War Urban Initiatives in Prishtina, Florina Jerliu – PART IV - ARCHITECTS FROM THE FRONTLINE - Conversation with Mazen El Murr, Giusi Ciotoli - Conversation with Ashley Bigham and Sasha Topolnytska, Giusi Ciotoli, Alisa Duka, Michelle Cichon, Shahane Mambreyan - Credit - Index