Giovanni Michelucci
Giovanni Michelucci (born January 2, 1891 in Pistoia , † December 31, 1990 in Florence ) was an Italian architect, urban planner and university lecturer.
life and work
The son of an entrepreneurial family earned his diploma from the Istituto Superiore d'Architettura in Florence in 1911, but initially worked in his father's iron foundry and tried to become financially independent as a graphic artist with woodcuts , an artistic activity that he took up again in old age. As a soldier in the First World War, he realized a small chapel near Caporetto - his first architectural work (1916).
In 1920 Michelucci became a professor at the Regio Istituto Nazionale d'Istruzione Professionale in Rome. In 1928 he returned to Florence. His work as an architect began with smaller residential buildings, but in 1933 he received first prize in the competition for the new central station of Florence with the Gruppo Toscano (Nello Baroni, Pier Niccolò Berardi, Italo Gamberini, Sarre Guarnieri, Leonardo Lusanna) . The project, which was completed in 1935, also attracted attention abroad due to its emphatically modern design language.
As an already established architect, Michelucci now worked for the influential state architect Marcello Piacentini in connection with the "Città universitaria" project in Rome. On the campus of La Sapienza University , Michelucci realized the institute building for mineralogy, geology and palaeontology (1932–35), which was based on the formal language of classical modernism . In 1939 Michelucci became professor at the University of Florence , in 1944 and 1945 he was elected chairman of its architecture faculty.
The historicizing reconstruction of the old quarter around the Ponte Vecchio , which had been destroyed towards the end of the Second World War, disappointed Michelucci seriously - he had presented much more modern plans with high-rise buildings for the southern area in front of the bridge. Resigned, Michelucci left the architecture faculty of the University of Florence in 1948 and then taught at the engineering faculty of the University of Bologna , but also realized projects in his native Tuscany again and again.
The commodity exchange ( Borsa merci in Italian ) in Pistoia , which was completed in 1950, exemplifies his view of the new building in a historical context. The attitude of a radical renewal, which Michelucci revealed in his Florentine high-rise project, is clearly put into perspective in the commodity exchange: Here the existing buildings on the neighboring Cassa di Risparmio dell'Azzolini (from 1905) became an important reference for his contemporary architecture. Despite the deliberately chosen, modern materials - reinforced concrete, glass and steel - he succeeded in successfully integrating the modern.
In the 1950s he became a protagonist of modern church construction, but also designed a skyscraper in Livorno (1957-66) and worked on the general development plan for Florence and that of Ferrara. In 1958 he received the important Antonio Feltrinelli Prize . With the motorway church of San Giovanni Battista in Campi Bisenzio (near Florence), Michelucci realized a key work of organic architecture in Italy in 1964 .
Michelucci's proposals for rebuilding Florence after the flood of December 1966 went unrealized.
On December 31, 1990, two days before his 100th birthday, he died in his house in Fiesole . Among his students were Leonardo Ricci and Aldo Loris Rossi .
Works (selection)
- Casa Valiani in Rome, 1929–31
- S. Maria Novella railway station in Florence, 1933–35
- Palazzo del Governo in Arezzo, 1936
- Borsa merci (commodity exchange) in Pistoia, 1949–50
- Church of SS. Pietro e Gerolamo (Chiesa di Collina) in Pontelungo (Pistoia), 1947–53
- Headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio (Sparkasse) Florence, 1953–57
- BV Maria Church in Larderello (Pisa), 1954–56
- Skyscraper on the Piazza Matteotti in Livorno, 1957–66
- Church of S. Giovanni Battista in Campi Bisenzio (on the Autostrada del Sole , Florence), 1960–64
- Church of San Giovanni Battista in Arzignano (Vicenza), 1965–67
- S. Rosa Church in Livorno, 1977
- Bank branch of the "Monte dei Paschi di Siena" in Colle Val d'Elsa, 1973–78
- 'Michelucci' theater in Olbia, 1988-90.
Individual evidence
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Michelucci, Giovanni |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian architect and urban planner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 2, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pistoia |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 31, 1990 |
| Place of death | Florence |