Monte-Amiata-Housing-Gallaratese-II-Milan-07-2014c

Carlo Aymonino (18 July 1926 – 3 July 2010) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

architect and urban planner best known for the

Monte Amiata Mount Amiata is the largest of the lava domes in the Amiata lava dome complex located about 20 km northwest of Lake Bolsena in the southern Tuscany region of Italy. It is located within the provinces of Grosseto and Siena. Geology Mount ...

housing complex in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Early life

Born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, he studied at the University of Rome, obtaining his degree in 1950. In the same years, he also got trained by

Marcello Piacentini Marcello Piacentini (8 December 188119 May 1960) was an Italian people, Italian urban theorist and one of the main proponents of Italian Fascist architecture. Biography Early career Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini. He ...

Architectural works

The year after his graduation, he opened his architectural practice in

. Between 1949 and 1954, with the very famous Mario Ridolfi and Ludovico Quaroni he had his first real professional experience, building the INA-Casa housing complex. This was located in Rome, on Via Tiburtina, and is a remarkable example of Italian neo-realism. Through this architectural experience, he acquired the practical skills which will be visible in later housing projects. Among the letter, remarkable were the 1955 'Spine Bianche' complex, located in the city of Matera, and the 1957 'Tratturo dei Preti' housing project, in the city of Foggia. From 1967 to 1970, Aymonino, as part of Studio AYDE, collaborated with

Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He was one of the leading propone ...

on the design of the

housing blocks in the Gallaratese district in

Writer and editor

Starting in 1954, Aymonino also worked as editor of the magazine ''Il contemporaneo''. Between 1957 and 1965 he also wrote for

Casabella ''Casabella'' is a monthly Italian architectural and product design magazine with a focus on modern, radical design and architecture. It includes interviews with the world's most prominent architects. History and profile Casabella was founded in ...

, participating to the late 1950s strong, vivid cultural and architectural debates. In 1973, Aymonino published ''L'Abitazione Razionale: Atti de Congressi CIAM 1929-30'', an analysis of

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. It catalogued and analyzed apartment plans from modernist developments in European and American cities, as well as older courtyard houses and linear houses. It was one of the early examples of a typological approach to architecture and urbanism, which are central to the neo-Rationalist and

New Urbanist New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually in ...

movements. The book also included reprints of papers on social housing from the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) conferences in Frankfurt in 1929 (papers by

Sigfried Giedion Sigfried Giedion (also spelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, '' Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mechanization ...

, Ernst May,

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

, Victor Bourgeois), and in Brussels in 1930 (Giedion, Böhm and Kaufmann, Gropius,

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; 8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most ...

, and

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...

).Broadbent, Geoffrey (1990). ''Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design'', pp. 172-175. Van Nostrand Reinhold, London.

Town planner

In 1957 Carlo Aymonino became a founder as well as a member of the ''Società di Architettura e Urbanistica'' - S.A.U. (Town Planning & Architecture Society). Concerning the town planning activity, Aymonino developed the idea of the ''Directional Centre'' as a tool capable of linking a city to its surroundings. This appeared applicable in particular to recognizable urban typologies. Aymonino put into practice such concepts and theories in the 1962 competition proposals for the city centres of Turin and Bologna.

Studio AYDE

In 1960 he founded Studio AYDE with Maurizio Aymonino, his brother, and with Baldo and Alessandro De Rossi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aymonino, Carlo 1926 births 2010 deaths Artists from Rome 20th-century Italian architects Italian architecture writers Italian male non-fiction writers Italian architectural historians Italian urban planners Sapienza University of Rome alumni Academic staff of the Università Iuav di Venezia