Luigi Moretti
Encyclopedia
Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.

Education and academic career

He was born in via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill
Esquilino (rione of Rome)
Esquilino is the XV rione, that is historic district, of the city. Its coat of arms bears two figures: a tree and three green mountains, all on a silver background. It is named for the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome....

, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life. He was the natural son of the Belgian architect Louis Rolland, whose most important work is the cinema-theater Adriano, and Maria Giuseppina Moretti
He attended primary and secondary school at San Giuseppe De Merode boarding school and from 1925 he studied at the Royal School of Architecture in Rome. In 1929, Moretti graduated with honors, with a project for a college of higher education Rocca di Papa
Rocca di Papa
Rocca di Papa is a small town and comune in the province of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is one of the Castelli Romani about 25 km south east of Rome on the Alban Hills. It is bounded by the other communes of Velletri, Rocca Priora, Monte Compatri, Grottaferrata, Albano and Marino...

, where he won the Giuseppe Valadier
Giuseppe Valadier
Giuseppe Valadier was an Italian architect and designer, urban planner and archeologist, a chief exponent of Neoclassicism in Italy.-Biography:...

 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 Corrado Ricci, in the arrangement of the areas east and north of Trajan's Market
Trajan's Market
Trajan's Market is a large complex of ruins in the city of Rome, Italy, located on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, at the opposite end to the Colosseum...

.
In these years he also worked as assistant for the professorships of Vincenzo Fasolo (architect of Mamiani Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...

 and Duca d'Aosta Bridge, both in Rome) and Gustavo Giovannoni, at the restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...

 chair.

Activity in building and urban development

In 1932, Moretti entered in competitions for the town planning of Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

, Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....

, and Faenza
Faenza
Faenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....

, for which he obtained the second place. He also entered in a competition for a council house complex in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

.

The next year, after ending the university career, with Giulio Pediconi, Mario Paniconi e Mario Tufaroli, attended at the fifth Triennale di Milano
Triennale
La Triennale di Milano is a design museum and events venue in Milan, Italy, located inside the Palace of Art building, part of Parco Sempione, the park grounds adjacent to Castello Sforzesco. It hosts exhibitions and events which highlight contemporary Italian design, urban planning, architecture,...

 with a project for a country house designed for a scholar. In this year he also met Renato Ricci
Renato Ricci
Renato Ricci was an Italian fascist politician active during the government of Benito Mussolini.Ricci first came to prominence as a legionary of Gabriele d'Annunzio from 1919 to 1920...

, at that time president of the Opera Nazionale Balilla
Opera Nazionale Balilla
thumb|240px|A young balilla in [[Piazza Venezia]].Opera Nazionale Balilla was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 .It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso,...

, that, the following year, appointed Moretti ONB technical director, succeeding to Enrico Del Debbio
Enrico Del Debbio
Enrico Del Debbio was an Italian architect and university professor.Born at Carrara, he studied in the Fine Art Academy there specializing in architecture; he moved to Rome in 1914 where he won several architectural awards. He also began to teach in the Scuola Superiore di Architettura...

.
In this role Moretti designed some of the youth centres of Opera Nazional Balilla and Gioventù Italiana del Littorio: in 1933 in Piacenza
Piacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...

 and in Rome, Trastevere
Trastevere
Trastevere is rione XIII of Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber, south of Vatican City. Its name comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, meaning literally "beyond the Tiber". The correct pronunciation is "tras-TEH-ve-ray", with the accent on the second syllable. Its logo is a golden head of a lion on a...

, in 1934 in Trecate
Trecate
Trecate is a comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 90 km northeast of Turin and about 9 km east of Novara....

, in 1935 a women centre in Piacenza and in 1937 another youth centre in Urbino
Urbino
Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482...

.

In 1937 he took over, the design of the regulatory plan of the Foro Mussolini
Foro Italico
Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti...

 (renamed Foro Italico after the 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 the Stadio Olimpico
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico is the main and largest sports facility of Rome, Italy. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex on the north of the city. An asset of the Italian National Olympic Committee, the structure is intended primarily for football...

).

Moretti's works were published in the journal Architecture.

In those years he participated in the competition for the construction of the Palazzo Littorio, a project harshly criticized by the magazine Casabella and progressive Italian architectural culture in general.

In 1938 he participated in the design of the E42, or EUR, Esposizione Universale Romana (standing for Rome World's fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

) and won (with Fariello, Muratori and Quaroni) the competition for the design of the Imperial Square (now square Guglielmo Marconi). The large building fronting the square was never realized, but in the postwar structures already executed were used for the "skyscraper Italy" by Luigi Mattioni.

He served in that period, in private practice, thanks mainly to his friendships with members of the Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 and journalists.

In the period between 1942 and 1945 Moretti disappeared from public view, to reappear in 1945, when arrested for his collaboration with fascism, was briefly imprisoned in the prison of San Victor, where he met count Adolfo Fossataro. After release, with him in November of the same year, founded Cofimprese company.

The postwar period

With Cofimprese, he worked to develop house-hotel buildings. The original plan was for 20 hotels which only three were built and made, before breaking up in 1949.
Also in Milan for Cofimprese, designed the complex between Corso Italia and Via Rugabella

The house Il Girasole ("The Sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...

") 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. The building is also mentioned in the essay by Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi
Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...

, Complexity and Contradiction in architecture, as an example of ambiguous architecture, poised between tradition and innovation. According to Swiss architectural theorist Stanislaus von Moos, the Vanna Venturi House
Vanna Venturi House
The Vanna Venturi House, one of the first prominent works of the postmodern architecture movement, is located in the suburban neighborhood of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

, 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.

Then Moretti designed villas for illustrious patrons, including La Villa Saracena in Santa Marinella
Santa Marinella
Santa Marinella is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about 60 km northwest of Rome.It includes the beach resort of Santa Severa , and a medieval castle.-History:...

 for the former director of the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero is an Italian newspaper based in Rome, Italy, founded in 1878.It is owned by the Italian publishing company Caltagirone Editore, and its leaders include Azzurra Caltagirone, the partner of the political leader Pierferdinando Casini, on its board...

, Francesco Malgeri.

Not only architecture

In 1950, he founded the magazine Space, Review of Arts and Architecture (published until 1953) to find a connection between different forms of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 (from architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 to sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, from painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 to film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 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 sculpture Baroque, 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 sculptor Pietro 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 essay Capogrossi dedicated to the famous Roman painter.

It was in 1954, when Moretti decided to found an art gallery, also known as space, in Rome. Moretti was also a close associate of the art critic and theorist Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié was an internationally active French critic, curator, and collector of art. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme", which is generally regarded as the European equivalent of abstract expressionism...

, with whom in 1960 Moretti co-founded the International Center of Aesthetic Research in Turin, Italy, an institution that lasted until 1987, after the death of Tapié.

Moretti's interest in art is also evident from the tendency to collect works, particularly of the 17th century (Seicento) and antiquity.

The SGI and IRMOU

In 1957, he became a consultant of the Società Generale Immobiliare
Società Generale Immobiliare
Società Generale Immobiliare was the largest Italian real estate and construction company. It was founded in Turin in 1862 but then moved to Rome in 1870 with the unification of Italy. After moving to Rome, the company became interested in the pastoral land around Rome and ended up buying it. ...

 ( 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 with 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:...

 and Espresso
Espresso
Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....

 on the devastation of Appia.

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 doctrine which drew on the application of mathematical theories in the design planning.
He studied new dimensional relationships in architectural space and Urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

, relating to the design of the Built Environment
Built environment
The term built environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy networks.The built...

, with mathematical analysis, like 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...

 had studied the Modulor
Modulor
The Modulor is an anthropometric scale of proportions devised by the Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier .It was developed as a visual bridge between two incompatible scales, the Imperial system and the Metric system...

 and the golden ratio
Golden ratio
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.61803398874989...

. 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 of Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

 in that year also participated in the project of the Olympic Village designed for the XVII Olympiad scheduled in Rome in 1960. The design of the village in 1961 won the Prix IN / ARCH 1961 for the best achievement in the region Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. On the same urban-design director is the Tenth District of Rome, partly realized between 1960 and 1966 on behalf of Incisa.

In this period Moretti had a significant influence on the work of the urban plan of Rome, which will be adopted by the City Council on 18 December 1962.

The latest works

In 1962, on behalf of General Real Estate, he designed the Watergate complex
Watergate complex
The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States. The site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building...

 (that gave its name to the political scandal of the same name, in the United States of America in 1972) in Washington, and also the Stock Exchange Tower, Tour de la Bourse
Tour de la Bourse
La tour de la Bourse is an International Style skyscraper by Luigi Moretti and Pier Luigi Nervi at 800 Victoria Square in Montreal, Quebec, connected by the underground city to Square-Victoria Metro Station...

 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

.

In 1963, he again won the award / ARCH for best achievement in the Lazio region with the study design of two twin buildings in the EUR.
In 1964, he won the Medal for meritorious school, culture and art was awarded, by President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 Antonio Segni
Antonio Segni
Antonio Segni was an Italian politician who was the 35th Prime Minister of Italy , and the fourth President of the Italian Republic from 1962 to 1964...

.

In 1965, he began a fruitful relationship with the Consulting Group Le Condotte (later merged with Italstat), taking care of the design and implementation of resettlement Thermal Boniface VIII Fiuggi
Fiuggi
Fiuggi is a comune in the province of Frosinone in the region of Lazio in central Italy.-History:Fiuggi, originally called Anticoli di Campagna, gained fame as early as the 14th century, when Pope Boniface VIII claimed his kidney stones had been healed by the mineral waters from the nearby Fiuggi...

, the Metropolitana di Roma in the trunk by the Termini station to Via Ottaviano in Prati, opened in 1980. As part of the work on the underground in Rome, designed the current automobile and underground bridge open in 1972, named Pietro Nenni. Another work is the underground parking for two thousand places in Villa Borghese, which opened in 1973.

He worked with Charles Conrad
Charles Conrad
Charles Conrad may refer to:*Pete Conrad , real name Charles Conrad, Jr., American astronaut*Charles Magill Conrad , 22nd United States Secretary of War*Charles E. Conrad , Acting Coach...

producing a biopic film about Michelangelo Buonarroti who received 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...

 Art Film award from the biographies found on the site of the Polytechnic Bari.
In 1968, he won the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize
Antonio Feltrinelli Prize
The Antonio Feltrinelli Prize is a prestigious award for achievement in the arts, music, literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and physical and mathematical sciences. The award comes with a monetary grant, a certificate, and a gold medal. The prize is awarded once every five years in each...

's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and got the task of designing a Tagbha sanctuary on Lake Tiberias. The project was approved by the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 but the work was not started because of the delicate situation between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and Palestinians
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 which soon erupted into war. In that year also he married Maria Teresa Albani.

The following year, in 1969 found a fertile market for jobs in Arab countries, especially in Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

 (where he designed the headquarters Bedouin Engineering Club and Houses) and Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 (Hotel El-Aurassi
Hotel El-Aurassi
Hotel El-Aurassi is a luxury five-star hotel in Algiers, Algeria. Established in 1975 and in grounds of some 125,850 square metres, the 14-storey hotel contains 455 rooms and 31 suites.The hotel was designed by Italian architect Luigi Moretti who died before the hotel was completed. The Algerian...

 and Complex Club des Pins, in addition to a number of schools and residential neighbourhoods).

In 1971, he designed new buildings, for building projects of General Real Estate, including the residential centre in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

 on the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

, and the Old residential Roquencourt (Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

), in Montreal, and the attachment to his previous realization of the 1961, the Torre (Stock Exchange Tower) Stock Exchange, a new skyscraper. He exhibited his works in a monographic exhibition at Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

.

He died in 1973, due to heart failure while he was in the midst of his work.

Further reading

  • Antonella Greco, Gaia Remiddi, Luigi Moretti. Guide to the Roman works, Palombi editore, Rome, 2006
  • Nizzi Alexandra, Marco Giunta, Luigi Moretti. Balilla experimental house at the Foro Mussolini. The House of weapons before the House of Weapons, Aracne Editrice, Rome, 2006
  • Cecilia Rostagno, Luigi Moretti. 1907-1973, Electa, Milan, 2008
  • Bruno Reichlin, Letizia Tedeschi, Luigi Moretti. Razionalismo e trasgressività tra barocco e informale, Electa, Milan, 2010

External links

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