Test your design IQ
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the Italian architect who achieved the unusual feat of getting international recognition in three distinct areas: theory, drawing, and architecture? He is also known for designing houseware like the Il Conico, the stainless steel kettle he designed for Alessi in 1986.
He was born in Milan, Italy in 1931, and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, where he graduated in 1959.
His career as a theorist began to take shape during the years he worked with Ernesto Rogers on the leading Italian architecture magazine Casabelle Continuita. In 1966, he published the book The Architecture of the City, which subsequently was translated into several languages and enjoyed enormous international success.
Spurning the then fashionable debates on style, he instead criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current architectural practice. He argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban artifacts that withstand the passage of time. This understanding of the city and its element, its monuments, and its permanence, influenced his designs for public buildings.
His earliest works of the ‘60s were mostly theoretical and displayed a simultaneous influence of 1920s Italian modernism, classicist influences of Viennese architect Adolf Loos, and the reflections of the painter Giorgio de Chirico. A trip to the Soviet Union to study Stalinist architecture also left a marked impression.
Some of his memorable works include the Quarter Schuzenstrasse in Berlin; the Monte Amiate Complex in the Gallaratese district in Milan; the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy; the Centro Direzionale in Perugia, Italy; the Palazzo Hotel in Fukuoka, Japan; the Bonnefanten Museum in the Netherlands; and the Ca’ di Cozzi in Vernona, his last project
He is considered one of the founders of the Neo-Rationalist movement known as La Tendenza. His influence in shaping European architectural thinking during this period is often compared to that of Robert Venturi of the US. Along with Venturi, he became one of the prime examples given by critic Charles Jencks of Postmodern architecture.
He became extremely influential in the late 1970s and 1980s as his body of work expanded and for his theories promoted in his books The Architecture of the City in 1966 and a Scientific Autobiography in 1981.
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Last week’s question: Who is the English cook and TV presenter who is the UK’s best-selling cookbook author with more than 18 million copies sold?
Answer: Delia Smith
Winner: Eduardo S.J. Ong of Pasig City
