[3] In it, the author states that "The decorative value of Futurist architecture depends solely on the use and original arrangement of raw or bare or violently colored materials".

Between 1912 and 1914, influenced by the United States urban landscape as well as by architects such as Otto Wagner,[5] Adolf Loos, and Renzo Picasso, Sant'Elia started working on a series of sketches for a futurist "Città Nuova" ("New City") designed to symbolize a new age.

[6] Sant'Elia's work featured vast monolithic skyscraper buildings with terraces, bridges and aerial walkways that embodied the sheer excitement of modern architecture and technology.

[7] A nationalist as well as an irredentist, Sant'Elia, together with other futurists such as Mario Sironi, Umberto Boccioni and Marinetti, joined the Italian army as Italy entered World War I in 1915.

[1] The production design of dystopian films like Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis and Ridley Scott's 1982 Hollywood movie Blade Runner is also indebted to Sant'Elia's ideas.