Paolo Portoghesi died, the master of choral architecture was 92 years old – time.news

2023-05-30 11:26:03

Of STEFANO BUCCI

He had designed the Great Mosque of Rome and directed the Biennale. His models: Bramante, Borromini, but also Le Corbusier, Terragni, Ridolfi,

Architecture as knowledge: When I use a theme by Bramante or Borromini I do so by looking at these models through the experiences of Gaud, Le Corbusier, Terragni, Ridolfi, Kahn, Pietila, Gehry. The project as a team game: Architecture is a choral aspect of human work which brings together the work of workers, technicians, craftsmen with respect to which the architect has the task of not canceling their creative participation.

Not without some controversy: The coveted definition of archistar tends to isolate him from the choral production process by relegating him to a fictitious or even virtual world. Paolo Portoghesi, passed away on the morning of May 30 at the age of 92 (he was born in Rome on November 2, 1931) in his beloved home in Calcata, in the province of Viterbo, had concentrated so in an interview with reading more than sixty years of work and research (as a designer, as a teacher) in this Poetry of the Curvea volume published in 2021 by Cangemi, which illustrates a predilection for curved lines and surfaces, a predilection that – explains Portoghesi – springs from the love for the forms of creation and in particular for those of living beings.

Italian architect and architecture historian, graduated in 1957, Portoghesi had taught History of Criticism (1962-66) at the University of Rome, from 1967 to 1977 he was prof. of history of architecture at the Milan Polytechnic, of which he was dean from 1968 to 1976. Since 1995 he had taught design at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Rome (Portuguese himself had been among the first to talk about the need for closed number ) And he had directed the architecture sector of the Venice Biennale (1979-82), of which he was also president (1983-93). His was an activity that took place in parallel on the sides of historical research and architectural design, aiming at the reintegration of collective memory into the tradition of modern architecture. Among his architectural works (which had often aroused heated controversy) as in the case of the Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center in Rome (1984-95), the Renaissance district in the Parco Talenti in Rome (2001).

May 30, 2023 (change May 30, 2023 | 11:38 am)

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