Early projects

In his drawings of from 1909 to 1912 Sant’Elia drew on a number of different sources of inspiration. The influence of the Italian architectural panorama was wedded to an interest in developments from beyond the Alps and in particular what came out of the Viennese Secessionist movement. This production was being made known through magazines and trade journals and it should be noted that his friends Gerolamo Fontana and Mario Chiattone had the Wagnerschule booklets for 1902-03 and 1903-04  in the Leipzig edition of 1905. For their part those of the Vienna school observed the architectural activities taking place in Italy, including the work of the likes of Giuseppe Sommaruga, Raimondo D’Aronco, Giulio Ulisse Arata and Ulisse Stacchini as well also as the ideas of the lecturers known at the Brera Fine Arts Academy, namely Gaetano Moretti, Giuseppe Mentessi and Angelo Cattaneo. The spreading of influences throughout Europe was also contributed to by the international exhibitions, and particularly those of Turin and of Rome of 1911 which were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Kingdom of Italy.
Studies of central plan buildings made up of simple or aggregate volumes surmounted by domed roofs, as well as designs involving portals enclosed by pilasters, are evidenced in the architectural works of Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Josef Margorold.
The decorative repertoire characterised by elegant and sinuous lines, the presence of long and emaciated female forms, and the use of gold, revealed the influences of Gustav Klimt and of Egon Shiele. The employment of affected physiognomies reflected the stylistic signatures of such painters as Romolo Romani and Antonio Rubino. Decadence and the brooding sense of death are redolent of the atmosphere of Arnold Böcklin and Edvard Munch. The painter Franz Von Stuck provided the influence of the motif of human bodies trapped in the coils of enormous serpents.

Special mention should be made of the drawing of the Tower with lantern, still realised according to Secessionist tenets in 1912. Two years later in 1914 the work was chosen for the New Trends exhibition by the architect himself, who altered its date for the event. In 1930 at the exhibition in the Broletto building in Como, Michele Leskovic (Escodamé) gave it the title of Torre faro [lighthouse tower] and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti put it forward as a model for use in the realisation of the Monument to the Fallen of Como.