Famous victims of the pandemic: What mark the Italian Vittorio Gregotti left in world architecture

2023 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:10

This spring, Italian and world architecture lost an outstanding urban planner. Vittorio Gregotti, a great architect, theorist in urban planning, one of the founders of the neorationalism movement, died of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus. He died at the age of 92 in a Milan hospital, where he was taken with his wife, also infected with Covid-19. The Mayor of Milan, commenting on the death of Gregotti, called him "Italy's ambassador to world architecture" and briefly summed up "Thank you for everything." We present some of the projects of the great architect.

He stayed modern until the end of his days

Gregotti was born in 1927 in Italy, graduated from the Technical University of Milan in 1952. In creating his own concept in architecture, Gregotti relied on the experience of both Western European and Soviet avant-garde artists. He formulated the ideas of Italian neorationalism in the book "Territory of Architecture", which was published in 1966 and is still relevant.

With his architectural studio Gregotti Associati Internationa, founded back in the 1970s, the architect created more than 1,500 works, including designs for cruise ships. The last of the architect's works is the transformation of the former foundry into the Teatro Leopold in Follonica (Grosseto).

Gregotti has curated the cultural and architectural biennials, and for 14 years was the head of the Casabella magazine, covering the topic of architecture and design.

The most controversial of his work was the project of a social housing quarter in Palermo - after its construction, it received a lot of criticism from architects and from the residents themselves, however, it is impossible to be perfect in everything.

Theater in Aix-en-Provence

The opera house, which is commonly called the "Grand Theater of Provence", is the venue for the annual Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival, as well as the Easter Festival. The building is located in Aix-en-Provence in the new quarter of Sextius Mirabeau.

The Grand Theater of Provence is home to the French Youth Orchestra, the Coffee Zimmermann ensemble and the Philharmonic.

The theater was opened in 2007, Gregotti worked on it with Paolo Colao, and this project is called an example of architecture of the XXI century.

The building is mounted on a spring to effectively eliminate vibration interference from trains on the nearby railroad.

The concert hall has a capacity of 1370 seats, of which 950 are in the stalls. When decorating the interiors, Mount Saint-Victoire, a symbol of Provence and an iconic landmark of France, was chosen as the thematic element.

Belem Cultural Center in Lisbon

The building is located near the river embankment west of Lisbon. It is adjacent to the Jerónimo monastery and is surrounded by numerous historical buildings such as the palace and tower of Belena, the Museum of Archeology, the Planetarium, the Monument to the Discovery.

The cultural center with an area of 140 thousand square meters was prepared in a very short period (1989-1992). The customer of the project was the Portuguese state. Gregotti developed the project together with the architect Manuel Salgado.

The building is aligned with the Monastery of Jerónimo, faces Piazza Imperio, and consists of structural blocks with courtyards and “patio squares” connecting the three main buildings. Each center is divided by transverse “streets” - this links the interiors of the building, which are a continuation of the historic urban structure of Lisbon. The central part of the main building is a public space.

The cultural center is known for its music, dance, theater and literary programs.

Olympic stadium in Barcelona

The Lewis Companis Multisport Stadium was built in Barcelona in 1927, and in the early 1990s, with the participation of the architect Gregotti, the arena was reconstructed to host the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The stadium can accommodate about 56 thousand spectators, and for the period of the Olympic Games its capacity was increased to 70 thousand spectator seats.

Stadium "Luigi Ferraris" in Genoa

This stadium, which is also called "Marassi" (due to its geographical location), was built according to the project of Vittorio Gregotti for the 1990 FIFA World Cup on the site of the old one, erected back in 1909. It hosted four championship games.

Work on the construction of the facility went on for a little over two years and, interestingly, was carried out in stages in separate sectors, so as not to interrupt the games of local football teams.

Church of Saint Massimiliano Kolbe in Bergamo

The church was very modern in appearance and was built at the request of the bishop. Architectural studio Gregotti won the competition in 1999, but construction began only in 2005. The work was completed three years later, and three years later an organ hall was added to the architectural complex.

The church has three tiers (the first is a basement) and looks like a square with a round roof. The outside of the building is covered with sandstone, using quartz colored sand, brought from India.

The complex has a meeting room, white marble with bronze inserts is used in the interior.

The diameter of the white dome inside is 18 meters. The altar is supported by 13 square columns, 12 of which are carved with the names of the apostles.

Continuing the topic, read about how: a Japanese man builds houses out of paper and cardboard for refugees and oligarchs.