Romano Roland Paoletti,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(23 April 1931 – 13 November 2013) was a British-Italian architect. He was best known for his work on the early stations for

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Mass Transit Railway The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit networ ...

, and for commissioning the award-winning designs of the stations of

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The U ...

Jubilee Line Extension The Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the line was first proposed in the 1970s. As part of the development of London Docklands, ...

. He was described by the

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

as "the Medici of London Transport".

Early life and career

Paoletti was born in London in 1931, at the City of London Hospital. His father was Italian and his mother French. The name Romano came from a church local to

Lucca, Italy Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

, where his father's family are thought to have lived for at least 700 years. His father was treated as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

in the Second World War and the family had to move to Scotland. In 1942, Paoletti was sent to

Clongowes Wood College Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel '' A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...

, a Jesuit boarding school in County Kildare, Ireland. From 1948 he studied architecture at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, then moved to London to work with

Basil Spence Sir Basil Urwin Spence, (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modern ...

. After this he undertook postgraduate studies at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice under

Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the te ...

and

Giancarlo De Carlo Giancarlo De Carlo (12 December 1919 − 4 June 2005) was an Italian architect. Biography Giancarlo De Carlo was born in Genoa, Liguria, in 1919. In 1939, he enrolled at the Milan Polytechnic, where he graduated in engineering in 1943. Duri ...

. He became an assistant to

Pier Luigi Nervi Pier Luigi Nervi (21 June 1891 – 9 January 1979) was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known wor ...

on the building of a new British Embassy in Rome to a design by Spence.

Hong Kong

Paoletti later moved to

, working at

Palmer and Turner P&T Group (), formerly known as Palmer and Turner Hong Kong (Chinese: 公和洋行; "Kung Wo Yeung Hong"), is an architectural firm in Hong Kong. It is one of the oldest architecture and engineering firms in the world, and it has designed many ...

before becoming an architect at the rapidly expanding

(MTR) in 1975. He became chief architect in the MTR's programme to build a new urban transport system. Over a period of twelve years, Paoletti led a team that designed 37 stations on the

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and fle ...

Kwun Tong Kwun Tong is an area in the Kwun Tong District of Hong Kong, situated at the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, and its boundary stretches from Lion Rock in the north to Lei Yue Mun in the south, and from the winding paths of Kowl ...

and

Island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

lines across Hong Kong completing the initial phase of the MTR. Paoletti was responsible for key design decisions that now form part of the MTR's design identity - the use of a single colour throughout a station, the use of mosaic tiles, and oversized calligraphy of the station name. The use of individual colours for each station was thought to give each station a unique identity, as well as assisting illiterate passengers. According to MTR's Chief Architect Andrew Mead, the colours were often chosen based on the

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

names of the station - such as Choi Hung (Rainbow) and

Lam Tin Lam Tin is an area in the Kwun Tong District in southeastern New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Lam Tin is primarily a residential area but also hosts a major transport interchange and several shopping attractions. Lam Tin was once a large field in th ...

(blue).

Jubilee Line Extension

Waterloo tube stn Jubilee eastbound look west

In 1990, Sir Wilfrid Newton, chairman of the MTR, left Hong Kong to become chairman of

London Regional Transport London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operatio ...

and Paoletti joined him in London, as commissioning architect for the new stations as part of the

. There had been plans to extend the London Underground's

Jubilee line The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in east London and in the suburban north-west, via the Docklands, South Bank and West End. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the Underground network, although some sect ...

for many years. The final route for the extension involved eleven stations:

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...

, Waterloo,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, London Bridge,

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckha ...

Canada Water Canada Water is an area of the Docklands in south-east London. It is named after a freshwater lake and wildlife refuge. Canada Water tube, Overground and bus station is immediately north of the lake, along with Canada Water Library which ov ...

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central ...

, North Greenwich,

Canning Town Canning Town is a district in the London Borough of Newham, East London. The district is located to the north of the Royal Victoria Dock, and has been described as the "Child of the Victoria Docks" as the timing and nature of its urbanisation wa ...

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

and Stratford, plus a new depot at Stratford. Since the 1930s, London Underground's architects had designed the surface buildings, but the sub-surface spaces were designed by civil engineers and only fitted out by the architects. Paoletti hired different architects to design each station, while maintaining that all should share an "underlying philosophy and essential elements." His own in house architect team coordinated the work of the various architect teams, as well working on Waterloo and

stations.

Recognition

Many of the Jubilee line stations received individual awards and commendations for their architecture, including Westminster and Canary Wharf being jointly awarded the 2000 Civic Trust Building of the Year. The

Royal Fine Art Commission The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for C ...

named the extension as a whole their Millennium Building of the Year, with the chair of the judging panel calling it "comparable to the achievement of Haussmann when he constructed the great boulevards of Paris". Paoletti himself received the

RIBA 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 ...

/ Arts Council Award for "Client of the Year" 1999. Paoletti won first RIBA Client of the Year award in 1998, and was appointed a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

for "services to Architecture". The ''

'' called him "the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

of London Transport". He died in London. He was survived by his wife, Nora. They had no children.

References

*
Roland Paoletti dies
Building Design online, 18 November 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paoletti, Roland 1931 births 2013 deaths 20th-century English architects English people of Italian descent British railway architects Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Transport design in London Alumni of the Manchester School of Architecture MTR Corporation People associated with transport in London