Luigi Moretti | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Luigi at his architect's desk in early 1973 | |
| Born | 2 January 1907 |
| Died | 14 July 1973(1973-07-14) (aged 66) Capraia Island, Italy |
| Alma mater | Royal School of Architecture in Rome |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | Antonio Feltrinelli Prize, 1968 |
| Buildings |
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Luigi Walter Moretti (2 January 1907 – 14 July 1973) was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy from the 1930s, he designed buildings such as theWatergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, andIl Girasole ("The Sunflower") house, both inRome. He was the founder of the Institute for Operations Research and Applied Mathematics Urbanism, where he developed his research on the history of architecture, and on the application of algorithmic methods to architectural design. He is recognized as the inventor ofparametric architecture.[1]
He was born on via Napoleone III, on theEsquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life.[2][3] He was the natural son ofLuigi Rolland (1852–1921), engineer and architect, born in Rome in a Belgian family, whose most important work isTeatro Adriano, and Maria Giuseppina Moretti.[4]He attended primary and secondary school atCollegio San Giuseppe - Istituto De Merode and from 1925 he studied at the Royal School of Architecture in Rome.[2][4] In 1929, Moretti graduated with honors, with a project for a college of higher educationRocca di Papa, where he won theGiuseppe Valadier award.
After degree, in 1931 he won a three-year scholarship for Roman Studies, established by the Governorate of Rome and the Royal School of Architecture. With this grant he worked with archeologist an art historian Corrado Ricci, in the arrangement of the areas east and north ofTrajan's Market.In these years he also worked as assistant for the professorships ofVincenzo Fasolo (architect of MamianiLyceum andDuca d'Aosta Bridge, both in Rome) andGustavo Giovannoni, at therestoration chair.[2][4]
In 1932, Moretti entered in competitions for the town planning ofVerona,Perugia, andFaenza, for which he obtained the second place. He also entered in a competition for a council house complex inNaples.[4]
The next year, after ending the university career, withGiulio Pediconi,Mario Paniconi eMario Tufaroli, attended at the fifthTriennale di Milano with a project for a country house designed for a scholar.[5] In this year he also metRenato Ricci, at that time president of theOpera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), that, the following year, appointed Moretti ONB technical director, succeeding toEnrico Del Debbio.[4]In this role Moretti designed some of the youth centres of ONB andGioventù Italiana del Littorio: in 1933 inPiacenza[6] and inRome, Trastevere,[7] in 1934 inTrecate,[8] in 1935 a women's centre in Piacenza and in 1937 another youth centre inUrbino.[9] His work was also part of thearchitecture event in theart competition at the1936 Summer Olympics.[10]
In 1937 he took over the design of the regulatory plan of theForo Mussolini (renamed Foro Italico after theSecond World War), where he created some of his masterpieces, such as the academy of fencing and the Duce's Gym (both 1936) and the commemoration cell (of 1940).
His are also the major planner of the Forum, enriched in the 1937 with the square of the Empire and the Stadium of Cypresses (expanded in 1953 and 1990 of other architects to become theStadio Olimpico).
Moretti's works were published in the journalArchitecture.
In those years he participated in the competition for the construction of the Palazzo Littorio (Casa del Fascio), a project harshly criticized by the magazineCasabella and progressive Italian architectural culture in general.
In 1938 he participated in the design of theE42 (Esposizione 1942) later changed toEUR(Esposizione Universale Romana) standing for RomeWorld's fair. Moretti(with Fariello, Muratori and Quaroni) won the competition for the design of the Imperial Square (now Piazza Guglielmo Marconi). The large building fronting the square was never finished, but after the war the structures already constructed were used for the"Skyscraper Italy (Grattacielo Italia)" byLuigi Mattioni.
He served in that period, in private practice, thanks mainly to his friendships withFascist officials and journalists.
In the period between 1942 and 1945 Moretti disappeared from public view. He reappeared in 1945, was arrested for his collaboration with fascism, and was briefly imprisoned in theprison of San Victor, where he met countAdolfo Fossataro. After release, with him in November of the same year, founded Cofimprese company.[11]
With Cofimprese, he worked to develop house-hotel buildings.[11] The original plan was for 20 hotels, of which only three were built before the company broke up in 1949.Also inMilan for Cofimprese, designed the complex between Corso Italia and Via Rugabella[12]
The houseIl Girasole ("The Sunflower") designed in 1949, and built in Rome in viale Bruno Buozzi (near via Parioli) in 1950, is one of the best-known projects of the period, and is considered an early example of postmodern architecture.[13] The building is also mentioned byRobert Venturi in his essayComplexity and Contradiction in Architecture as an example of ambiguous architecture, poised between tradition and innovation.[14] According to Swiss architectural theoristStanislaus von Moos, theVanna Venturi House, one of Venturi's masterpiece, in its broken pediments "recalls the 'duality' of the facade of Luigi Moretti's apartment house on the Via Parioli in Rome."[15]
Then Moretti designed villas for illustrious patrons, includingLa Villa Saracena (1954)[16][17] inSanta Marinella for the former director of the Rome newspaperIl Messaggero,Francesco Malgeri.
In 1950, he founded the magazineSpace,Review of Arts and Architecture (published until 1953) to find a connection between different forms of art (from architecture to sculpture, from painting to film and theater), not by chance that the first issue began with an essay titled "Eclecticism and units of language". The journal was managed and written almost entirely by the Roman architect who made it come together in the results of his research and study on it wise public key, such abstract forms in the sculptureBaroque, discontinuity of space in Caravaggio and structures and sequences of spaces. Moretti was editorial director and editor. The magazine, printed in Milan, first by the printers E. Barigazzi, then by Lucini, was short-lived, with limited output of only seven numbers. In the decades after he released sporadically Moretti numbers, mostly monographs, in the magazine. In 1959, he released an issue dedicated to the sculptorPietro De Laurentiis. In April 1963 published on the Space Structure of the essay collections and 1964 contemporary meaning of the wise words "architecture". And July 1968, an issue appeared in the essayCapogrossi dedicated to the famous Roman painter.
It was in 1954, when Moretti decided to found an art gallery, also known asspace, in Rome. Moretti was also a close associate of the French art critic and theoristMichel Tapié, with whom in 1960 Moretti co-founded the International Center of Aesthetic Research inTurin, Italy, an institution that lasted until 1987, after the death of Tapié.[18]
Moretti's interest in art is also evident from the tendency to collect works, particularly of the 17th century (Seicento) and antiquity.
In 1957, he became a consultant of theSocietà Generale Immobiliare (SGI) for which he designed, among other things, the buildings at the head of the EUR. In the same year he collaborated with the Municipality of Rome and the Ministry of Public Works, working on projects for inter-municipal plan of Rome (never adopted) and the Archaeological Park, from which arose the controversy withBruno Zevi andL'Espresso on the devastation ofAppia.
Also in 1957, he founded the Institute for Operations Research and Applied Mathematics Urbanism (IRMOU) with the express purpose of continuing studies on the so-called"parametric" architecture, a new approach which drew on the application of mathematical theories in the design planning, and anticipated the use of computational methods that characterized the architectural design process of the 2010s.[1]
He studied new dimensional relationships inarchitectural space and urban area, relating to the design of theBuilt Environment, with mathematical analysis, likeLe Corbusier had studied theModulor and thegolden ratio. These studies were represented in 1960 with huge éclat in the press, at the XIII Triennale di Milano.
In 1958, he later went on to design major residential neighborhoods, including the CEP ofLivorno.In 1958 Moretti participated withAdalberto Libera,Vittorio Cafiero,Amedeo Luccichenti andVincenzo Monaco in the project of theOlympic Village in Rome designed for theXVII Olympiad scheduled in 1960. The design of the village won in 1961 the Prix IN/ARCH 1961 for the best achievement in the region ofLacio.
Moretti was also general project coordinator forurban planning and design of the residential district"Quartiere INCIS Decima" in Zona Z. XXVII Torrino of Rome. Design team included Vittorio Cafiero,Ignazio Guidi,Adalberto Libera. This housing compound on behalf of INCIS (Istituto nazionale per le case degli impiegati statali - National Institute for Housing of State Employees) was partly realized between 1960 and 1966.
In this period Moretti had a significant influence on the work of the urban plan of Rome, which was adopted by the City Council on 18 December 1962.
Two years before his death, Moretti described the concept of Parametric Architecture in an article published inMoebius.[19] Here he called for a new architecture that was rigorous in the definition of form through the help of mathematical logic, computer techniques, and methods ofoperation research, and which could overcome the empirical state of current architecture.[20]
Moretti enumerated 8 points that define his parametric architecture:[21]
In 1962, on behalf of General Real Estate, he designed theWatergate complex (that gave its name to the 1972political scandal of the same name, in the United States) inWashington, and also theStock Exchange Tower (Tour de la Bourse) inMontreal, Quebec.
In 1963, he again won the award IN/ARCH 1963 for best achievement in theLazio region with the study design of two twin buildings forEsso (Exxon) in the EUR in Rome.In 1964, he was awarded the Medal for meritorious school, culture and art byPresidentAntonio Segni.
In 1965, he began a fruitful relationship with the Consulting GroupLe Condotte (later merged with Italstat), taking care of the design and implementation of resettlement Thermal Boniface VIIIFiuggi, theMetropolitana di Roma in the trunk by theTermini station to Via Ottaviano inPrati, opened in 1980. As part of the work on the underground in Rome, designed the current automobile and underground bridge open in 1972, named Ponte Pietro Nenni. Another work is the underground parking for two thousand places inVilla Borghese, which opened in 1973.
Participation at the International Conference on Michelangelo's Studies (1964) with the essay"The ideal structures of Michelangelo's architecture and ofBaroque" led him to try a different creative experience - creating in 1964 an hour-long biographical film aboutMichelangelo Buonarroti,"Michelangelo: The Man With Four Fouls", written and directed by Charles Conrad, subsidized by the Italian Government. The movie received the Lion of St. Mark's Art Film Prize at theVenice Film Festival the same year.[2][3][22][23]
In 1967–1968, he won theAntonio Feltrinelli Prize'sAccademia Nazionale dei Lincei[24] and got the task of designing aTabgha sanctuary onLake Tiberias on theHoly Land. The project was approved by theHoly See but the work was not started because of the delicate situation between Israel andPalestinians which soon erupted into war.[2]
In 1968 he married Maria Teresa Albani.
The following year, in 1969 found a fertile market for jobs in Arab countries, especially in Kuwait (where he designed the headquarters Bedouin Engineering Club and Houses) and in Algeria (Hotel El-Aurassi and Complex Club des Pins, in addition to a number of schools and residential neighborhoods).
In 1971, he designed new buildings (with Vosbeck, Vosbeck, Kendrick & Redinger), for projects of General Real Estate, including the residential center inAlexandria, Virginia on thePotomac River, a residential center inRocquencourt by Paris, inMontreal a new skyscraper as attachment to his previous 1961 realization of the Stock Exchange Tower (Tour de la Bourse). The same year at request of the SpanishMinistry of Information and Tourism, Moretti arranged a monographic exhibition of his works inMadrid in the framework of the International exhibition of construction and public works: he presented 21 works by means of photographs, models and personally selection of materials and their fitting.[2]
He died in 1973 from heart failure while he was in the midst of his work.
