MANILA, Philippines - Who is this architect known as the godfather of Italy’s post-war architecture?
He was a poet, painter, industrial designer and founding editor of Domus magazine as well as an architect. Through his designs and his work at Domus, he was the godfather of Italy’s post-war design renaissance.
“Love architecture, be it ancient or modern. Love it for its fantastic, adventurous and solemn creations; for its inventions; for the abstract, allusive and figurative forms that enchant our spirit and enrapture our thoughts. Love architecture, the stage and support of our lives.”
Those were the words with which he began the 1957 collection of essays he published in Italian as Amate L’Architettura, and in English as In Praise of Achitecture. His spirit shines through his writing as it did in all his work. He played many roles in his long career: architect, industrial designer, craftsman, poet, painter, journalist and, above all, passionate propagandist for design excellence.
Born in Milan in 1891, he studied architecture there, only to be forced to interrupt his course to serve in the Italian army during World War I. After the war, he completed his degree but, instead of practising as an architect, became art director of the ceramics manufacturer, Richard-Ginori. From 1923 to 1930, he turned the company into a role model of industrial design excellence by decorating simple ceramic forms with elegant neo-classical motifs. “Industry is the style of the 20th century, its mode of creation,” he wrote after winning the Grand Prix at the 1925 Paris Expo.
In 1928, he was persuaded by his friend, the Florentine journalist Ugo Ojetti, to found a magazine, Domus, as a vehicle for his beliefs. For the rest of his life, he would edit a magazine, mostly Domus.
During the late 1920s, he returned to architecture by building houses in Milan and Paris, including the “domuses,” his “typical houses” which looked like typical Milanese homes from the outside, but were innovative inside with flexible spaces and modular furniture. By the mid-1930s, he was winning bigger commissions such as the 1934 Mathematics Department at Rome University and 1936 headquarters of Montecatini. As an architect, his goals were that his buildings should harmonize form with function, and be exemplars of the correct use of materials. He was also reinforcing his role as a propagandist by curating the Biennale della Arti Decorativa — first in Monza, then Milan as the Triennale — which he established as a showcase for the best of Italian design.
In 1941, he left Domus to found another magazine, Stile, which he edited until 1947 when he returned to Domus.
During the 1950s, he devoted more time to industrial design. The angular 1953 Distex armchair and 1957 Superleggera chair, he designed for Cassina swiftly became classics of the period. He also exported his light, sensuous vision of La Dolce Vita — enlivened with soft colors and exuberant patterns — to Caracas, where he built the beautiful 1955 Villa Planchart, which still hovers above the city at night like an illuminated butterfly, and to his 1958 Alitalia offices in New York. Back in Milan, he built one of the city’s 20th century icons, the graceful 1956 Pirelli Tower which he described as “a graphic slogan.”
Last week’s Question: Who is the Danish furniture and interior designer considered one of the most influential in the 20th century?
Answer: Verner Panton
Winner: Abegail Nicolas of Plaridel, Bulacan
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