Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 modern and contemporary architecture

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

refers to architecture in Italy during the last decade.

Styles

Beginning of 20th century

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 was represented in Italy with Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga was an Italian architect of the Art nouveau movement. He was the pupil of Camillo Boito and Luca Beltrami to the Brera Academy in Milan. His monumental architecture exerted some influence on the futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia...

 and Ernesto Basile

Ernesto Basile

Ernesto Basile was an Italian architect and an exponent of modernism and Art Nouveau. He became well-known because of his stylistic fusion of ancient, medieval and modern elements. He was one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau in Italy.- Life :He was born on January 31, 1857 in Palermo...

 (Palazzo Castiglioni

Palazzo Castiglioni

Palazzo Castiglioni is a historical mansion in the heart of the mountain top town of Cingoli, near Macerata, in the Marche, central Italy. It is the residence of the Marquis Francesco Saverio Castiglioni.- History :...

, expansion of the Palazzo Montecitorio

Palazzo Montecitorio

The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.- History :The building was originally designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the young Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV...

 in Rome respectively). A completely new language was announced by Antonio Sant'Elia

Antonio Sant'Elia

Antonio Sant'Elia was an extremely influential Italian architect.-Life:Antonio Sant'Elia was born in Como, Lombardy. A builder by training, he opened a design office in Milan in 1912 and became involved with the Futurist movement...

 (futurism

Futurism

Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...

). Rationalism

Rationalism (architecture)

The intellectual principles of rationalism are based on architectural theory. Vitruvius had already established in his work De Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the...

 appeared in Gruppo 7

Gruppo 7

Gruppo 7 was a group of Italian architects who wanted to reform architecture by the adoption of rationalism. It was formed in 1926 by Luigi Figini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Giuseppe Pagano, Gino Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni and Ubaldo Castagnola, replaced the following year...

 (1926), but after the dissolution of the group emerged in the single figures of Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni

Giuseppe Terragni was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism...

 (Casa del Fascio Como), Adalberto Libera

Adalberto Libera

Adalberto Libera is one of the most representative architects of the Italian Modern movement, which should not be confused with the Italian Rationalist movement, with which he only had a short-lived relationship....

 (Villa Malaparte in Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...

) and Giovanni Michelucci

Giovanni Michelucci

Giovanni Michelucci was an Italian architect, urban planner and engraver. He was one of the major Italian architects of the 20th century, known for notable projects such as the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the San Giovanni Battista church on the Autostrada del Sole....

 (Santa Maria Novella Station

Santa Maria Novella Station

Firenze Santa Maria Novella or Stazione di Santa Maria Novella - Firenze SMN is the main national and international train station in Florence, Italy...

 in Florence, in collaboration). During the fascist period the so-called "Novecento movement" flourished (Gio Ponti

Giò Ponti

Gio Ponti was one of the most important Italian architects, industrial designers, furniture designers, artists, and publishers of the twentieth century.-Early life:...

, Peter Aschieri, Giovanni Muzio

Giovanni Muzio

Giovanni Muzio was an Italian architect. Muzio was born and died in Milan and is most closely associated with the Novecento Italiano group....

), that was based on the rediscovery of imperial Rome. Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini

Marcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...

, author of urban transformations in several Italian cities and remembered for the disputed Via della Conciliazione

Via della Conciliazione

Via della Conciliazione is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly 500 m in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constructed between 1936 and 1950, and it is the primary access route to the...

 in Rome, devised a "simplified Neoclassicism".

Fascism

Second World War was characterized by various talents (Luigi Moretti

Luigi Moretti

Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.- Education and academic career :He was born in via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life...

, Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa , was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape, and the history of Venetian culture, and Japan. Scarpa was also a glass and furniture designer of note....

, Franco Albini

Franco Albini

Franco Albini was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect and designer.A native of Robbiate, near Milan, Albini obtained his degree in architecture at Politecnico di Milano University in 1929 and began his professional career working for Gio Ponti. He started displaying his works at...

, Giò Ponti

Giò Ponti

Gio Ponti was one of the most important Italian architects, industrial designers, furniture designers, artists, and publishers of the twentieth century.-Early life:...

, Tomaso Buzzi and others), but was devoid of a single management. Pier Luigi Nervi

Pier Luigi Nervi

Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer. He studied at the University of Bologna and qualified in 1913. Dr. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946-61...

, with its bold and concrete structures, acquired an international reputation and was an example to Riccardo Morandi

Riccardo Morandi

Riccardo Morandi was an Italian civil engineer best known for his interesting use of reinforced concrete. Amongst his best known works were the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, an 8 km crossing of Lake Maracaibo incorporating seven cable-stayed bridge spans with unusual piers, and the...

 and Sergio Musmeci. In a season enlivened by interesting debates brought forward by critics such as Bruno Zevi

Bruno Zevi

Bruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...

, prevailed rationalism, which is in the heading of Rome Termini Station a paradigmatic works. The neorealism

Neorealism

Neorealism or structural realism is a theory of international relations, outlined by Kenneth Waltz in his 1979 book Theory of International Politics. Waltz argues in favor of a systemic approach: the international structure acts as a constraint on state behavior, so that only states whose outcomes...

 of Michelucci (author of numerous churches in Tuscany), Charles Aymonino, Mario Ridolfi and others (neighborhoods INA-Casa) was followed by the Neoliberty (seen in earlier works of Vittorio Gregotti

Vittorio Gregotti

Vittorio Gregotti is an Italian architect, born in Novara.He is head of the Gregotti Associati studio. His studio has designed several important buildings, such as the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon, the Arcimboldi Opera Theater in Milan and several university...

) and Brutalist architecture

Brutalist architecture

Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...

 (Torre Velasca

Torre Velasca

The Torre Velasca is a skyscraper built in 1950s by the BBPR architectural partnership, in Milan, Italy.-Architects:...

 in Milan group BBPR

BBPR

BBPR was an architectural partnership founded in Milan, Italy in 1932.-The Partners:The partners were Gianluigi Banfi, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers...

, residential building via Piagentina

Architecture of Florence

This is a list of the main architectural works in Florence, Italy by period. Also includes buildings in surrounding cities, such as Fiesole. Some structures appear two or more times, since they were built in various styles.-Pre-historic, Greek and Roman periods:...

 in Florence, Leonardo Savioli, works by Giancarlo De Carlo

Giancarlo De Carlo

Giancarlo De Carlo was an Italian architect.He was born in Genoa, Liguria in 1919. He trained as an architect from 1942 to 1949, a time of political turmoil which generated his philosophy toward life and architecture...

).

Modernism

Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa , was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape, and the history of Venetian culture, and Japan. Scarpa was also a glass and furniture designer of note....

 accomplished significant modernist projects in the Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

 and Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

 (a hospital project in Venice) and Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

 (design of a house on the Grand Canal Venice) did not build anything in Italy, as opposed to Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...

 (Church of the Assumption in Riola, Vergato

Vergato

Vergato is a comune in the Province of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 40 km southwest of Bologna....

), Kenzo Tange

Kenzo Tange

was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Tange was also an influential protagonist of...

 (towers of Bologna Fair, floor of Naples central business district (CDN)

Centro Direzionale

The Centro Direzionale is a service center in Naples, Italy. The district is mainly devoted to business.The project of the Centro Direzionale dates back to 1964. It was designed in 1982 by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange....

) and Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...

 (home of Mondadori

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore is the biggest publishing company in Italy.-History:Founded by the 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori in 1907 to publish the magazine titled Luce!, it soon became an important publisher. Its headquarters are in Milan....

 in Segrate

Segrate

Segrate is a town and comune located in the Province of Milan in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. In December 2004 it had some 33,000 inhabitants....

). The Postmodern

Postmodern architecture

Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...

, anticipated by Paul Portuguese around the 1960, found its consecration in the Theater of the World built by Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design.-Early life:...

 for the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 of 1980.

Post-modernism

Among the principal architects working in Italy between the end of the 20th and early 21st centuries remember Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...

 (Stadio San Nicola

Stadio San Nicola

The Stadio San Nicola is a multi-use all-seater stadium designed by Renzo Piano in Bari, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Associazione Sportiva Bari. It hosted the 1991 European Cup Final, won by Red Star Belgrade. The stadium itself resembles a...

 in Bari, restructuring the Old Port of Genoa

Port of Genoa

The Port of Genoa is an Italian seaport on the Mediterranean Sea.With a trade volume of 58.6 million tonnes it is the first port of Italy, the second in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units after the port of transshipment of Gioia Tauro, with a trade volume of 1.86 million TEUs.- Structural...

, Auditorium Parco della Musica

Parco della Musica

Auditorium Parco della Musica is a large multi-functional public music complex in Rome, Italy. The complex is situated in the north of the city, in the area where the 1960 Summer Olympic Games were held....

 in Rome, Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, etc..), Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas is an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1944 to an Jewish Lithuanian father and Italian Catholic mother. He received his degree in architecture from the La Sapienza University in 1969 in Rome, where he opened his first office. Subsequent offices were opened in Paris and Vienna...

 (skyscraper in the Piedmont Region, Convention Center to 'EUR), Game Aulenti (Railway Museum of Naples underground ), the Swiss Mario Botta

Mario Botta

Mario Botta is a Swiss architect. He studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan and the IUAV in Venice. His ideas were influenced by Le Corbusier, Carlo Scarpa, Louis Kahn. He opened his own practice in 1970 in Lugano.-Career:...

 (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, restructuring of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan), Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...

 (National Museum of the XXI Century Arts

MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts

The MAXXI - National Museum of the 21st Century Arts is a national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity, located in the Flaminio neighbourhood of Rome, Italy. It is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities...

 in Rome, skyscraper "Lo Storto" in Milan), Richard Meier

Richard Meier

Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...

 (Church of God Merciful Father and casket of the Ara Pacis

Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar to Peace, envisioned as a Roman goddess...

, in Rome), Norman Foster

Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners....

 (Florence Station Belfiore), Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...

 (skyscraper "Il Curvo" in Milan) and Arata Isozaki

Arata Isozaki

Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect from Ōita. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954. Isozaki worked under Kenzo Tange before establishing his own firm in 1963. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986.In 2005, Arata Isozaki founded the Italian branch of his office: Arata Isozaki &...

 (Palasport Olimpico in Turin, with Pier Paolo Maggiora

Pier Paolo Maggiora

-Biography:He was born in 1943 in Saluzzo. In Turin he got the Master of Arts degree with Carlo Mollino.Apprenticeship in the ateliers of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Carlo Scarpa, Oscar Niemeyer and Kenzo Tange....

and Marco Brizio, skyscraper "Il Dritto" in Milan).