Sebastiano Giuseppe Locati (20 January 1861, 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 ...

– 7 October 1939, in Milan) was an Italian architect. He became famous at the turn of the twentieth century for his efforts in designing structures in eclectic and Art Nouveau styles.

Life and career

Born to Francesco Locati and Angela Fossati, he studied at the

Accademia di Brera The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

, where he was a pupil of

Camillo Boito Camillo Boito (; 30 October 1836 – 28 June 1914) was an Italian architect and engineer, and a noted art critic, art historian and novelist. He was the brother of Arrigo Boito, the friend and librettist of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. ...

and Carlo Formenti. After completing his studies in 1881, he won the Oggioni Competition for a two-year post-graduate course in Rome, after which he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he enrolled in the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

and where he updated his artistic knowledge, nurturing his eclectic taste. His career began in 1885 when he collaborated as an assistant with

Luca Beltrami Luca Beltrami (November 13, 1854 – August 8, 1933) was an Italian architect and architectural historian, known particularly for restoration projects. Biography Early life and education Beltrami was born in Milan then part of the Austrian Em ...

and Giovanni Ceruti in designing the Sartorelli house on the via Torino in Milan. There, Locati built several eclectic buildings for private clients, including the Casa Rigamonti at 24 via Solferino (1889–90), the Casa dei fratelli Reininghaus (later raised) on the Corso Genova at the corner of the Piazzale Cantore (1895–96), and the house of the sculptor

Odoardo Tabacchi Odoardo Tabacchi (Valganna, 19 December 1836 - Milan, 23 March 1905) was an Italian sculptor. Biography Early life and education Odoardo Tabacchi was born in Valganna on 19 December 1836. He enrolled at the Brera Academy in Milan at the age o ...

(1902). In 1899 he obtained an appointment as a professor at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

, where he taught decoration and architecture, architectural composition and practical architecture until 1935. He also held the post of commissioner of the Conservative Commission of Monuments for

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

under the direction of the architect Gaetano Moretti. Locati reached the peak of his professional career in 1906, when he was in charge of the general artistic direction of the section set up at the

Parco Sempione Parco Sempione ("Simplon Park") is a large city park in the historic center of Milan, region of Lombardy, Italy. Established in 1888, and designed by Emilio Alemagna, it has an overall area of , and it is located inside the Zone 1 administrative ...

of the great Milan International Exhibition, dedicated to the opening of the new Simplon railway tunnel. For the fair he designed the main entrance with an elliptical configuration with the reproduction of the two entrances to the tunnel, some pavilions, the entrance and pavilion of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts and the Aquarium building, in which the references to the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

are clearly evident. He is buried at the

Cimitero Monumentale di Milano The Cimitero Monumentale ( " Monumental Cemetery") is one of the two largest cemeteries in Milan, Italy, the other one being the Cimitero Maggiore. It is noted for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments. Designed by the architect Carlo ...

in Milan.

Bibliography

* G.L. Ciagà, ed., ''Archivi di architettura in Lombardia. Censimento delle fonti, edito dal Centro di Alti Studi sulle Arti Visive, con la collaborazione della Soprintendenza archivistica della Lombardia e del Politecnico di Milano,'' 2003. * Sergio Coradeschi, Carlo G. Lacaita, Andrea Silvestri eds., ''Il Politecnico di Milano. Una scuola nella formazione della società industriale. 1863-1914.'' Milan: Electa, 1981.* Luisa Erba, "Il neogotico nell’insegnamento degli ingegneri nell’Università di Pavia a cavallo tra Ottocento e Novecento: Giuseppe Sebastiano Locati," in Rossana Bossaglia and Valerio Terraroli, eds., ''Il neogotico in Europa nei secoli XIX e XX, Pavia, 25-28 settembre 1985''. Milan: Mazzotta, 1989. * Teresa Ferreira, "Scambi culturali tra l’Italia e il Portogallo. Attività di Alfredo D’Andrade e Sebastiano Locati in Portogallo," in Gaia Piccarolo and Giuliana Ricci, ''Luigi Manini (1848-1936) architetto e scenografo pittore e fotografo.'' Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana, 2007. pp. 65–71. * Sebastiano Locati, ''Progetti Costruzioni Rilievi.''Pavia: Coi tipi dello stabilimento tipografico Luigi Rossetti, 1936. * Alessandra Mazzarella, "Sebastiano Giuseppe Locati. Orientamenti concettuali del restauro agli esordi della scuola Superiore di architettura," in Vittorio Fianchetti Pardo, ed. ''La Facoltà di Architettura dell'Università La Sapienza dalle origini al Duemila: discipline, docenti, studenti.'' Rome: Gangemi, 2001. pp. 143–168. * Elisabetta Polezzo. "GIUSEPPE SEBASTIANO LOCATI - Un architetto tra eclettismo e liberty." Academia.edu. Retrieved 2 July 2016. * Simona Sala, Serena Sansone, "L’Acquario di Milano e l’architetto Giuseppe Sebastiano Locati, Tesi di laurea" in ''Storia dell’architettura,'' Politecnico di Milano, a.a. 1997-98, relatore Professora Aurora Scotti.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Locati, Sebastiano 1861 births 1939 deaths Art Nouveau architects Italian designers Modernist architects from Italy Academic staff of the University of Pavia Architects from Milan Brera Academy alumni Burials at the Cimitero Monumentale di Milano