Pierre Vago (30 August 1910, in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

– 1 February 2002, in Noisy-sur-École) was a French

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Vago was known internationally as the publisher of ''L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui'' and General Secretary of the International Union of Architects, of which he remained the honorary president until his death.

Life

Pierre Vago, born in Budapest, studied at the ''

École Spéciale d'Architecture The École spéciale d'architecture (ÉSA; formerly École centrale d'architecture) is a private school for architecture at 254, boulevard Raspail in Paris, France. The diploma from the École spéciale d'architecture (DESA), recognized by the St ...

'' (ESA) in Paris. Because of his housing projects, factories, and the Central Banks of the French colonies of Tunisia and Algeria, as well as his controversial Basilica of St. Pius X in

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a ...

, he received much attention in the postwar years. In 1957, he designed one of the new residential buildings in the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Hansaviertel The Hansaviertel () is the smallest ''Ortsteil'' (district) of Berlin and is between Großer Tiergarten and the Spree River, within the central Mitte borough of Berlin. The district was almost completely destroyed during World War II but was re ...

. In 1974, he built the Campus Pont-de-Bois for the University of Lille located in

Villeneuve d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area (27.46 km2) ...

in eastern

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

. As the publisher of the influential magazine, ''L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui'' (Today's Architecture) Pierre Vago became an internationally renowned architecture critic. In 1948, he founded the International Union of Architects, and also served as its General Secretary for many years. His goal was to unite all the architects of the world in an umbrella organization of all the national architects' associations. In 2005, the UIA is recognized in 95 countries and thus represents ca. 1.5 million architects. Under the direction of the UIA, East and West German architects were brought together at the end of the 1950s. Vago was a proponent of Franco-German reconciliation politics. The 1984 International Architecture Symposium "Mensch und Raum" (Man and Space) at the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien) received international attention. Among the participants were Pierre Vago as well as, amongst others, Justus Dahinden, Dennis Sharp,

Bruno Zevi Bruno Zevi (22 January 1918 – 9 January 2000) was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author, and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of "classicizing" modern architecture and postmodernism. Early life Zevi was born and died in ...

, Jorge Glusberg, Otto Kapfinger, Frei Otto,

Paolo Soleri Paolo Soleri (21 June 1919 – 9 April 2013) was an American architect and urban planner. He established the educational Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti. Soleri was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a Nati ...

, Ernst Gisel, Ionel Schein. Pierre Vago was also an honorary member of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

, the German ''Bund Deutscher Architekten'', and the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

Publications (selection)

* Pierre Vago: ''l'Architecture d'aujourd'hui, revue internationale d'architecture contemporaine, Paris'', 1971, ISBN B0000DWOHP * Gabriel Epstein, Pierre Vago, Klaus Müller-Rehm: ''Architektur-Experimente in Berlin und anderswo. Für Julius Posener'', 1989, * Pierre Vago: ''L'UIA, 1948-1998'', Epure 1998, * Pierre Vago: ''Pierre Vago, une vie intense'', Aam 2000, * Maria Grazia Turco, Pierre Vago, un architetto cittadino del mondo, in Saggi in onore di Gaetano Miarelli Mariani, “Quaderni dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Architettura”, Dipartimento di Storia dell’Architettura, Restauro e Conservazione dei Beni Architettonici, a cura di M. P. Sette, M. Caperna, M. Docci, M. G. Turco, N. S., 44–50, (2004-2007), pp. 319–330, ISSN 0485-4152. * Maria Grazia Turco, Pierre Vago architetto e urbanista, in Pierre Vago e la cultura architettonica del Novecento, a cura di Maria Grazia Turco, Edizioni Quasar, Roma 2020, pp. 41–62, ISBN 978-88-5491-051-5.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vago, Pierre Hungarian emigrants to France 20th-century French architects 1910 births 2002 deaths École Spéciale d'Architecture alumni Art competitors at the 1948 Summer Olympics