Bruno Zevi

Bruno Zevi ( born January 22, 1918 in Rome, † January 9, 2000 ) was an Italian architect, historian, author and university professor.

Life

Bruno Zevi, in Rome -born Jew, made in 1933 graduated from high school and decided to study architecture. Due to the political situation, he moved to London in 1938 and studied for at the Architectural Association, then he went to the USA. From 1940 to 1942, Bruno Zevi student of Walter Gropius at Harvard University and graduated from the Graduate School of Design, before he returned to Europe in 1943 and the " Resistance, " the anti-fascist resistance in Italy, joined.

Fascinated by the architectural work of Frank Lloyd Wright's changed attitude Zevi: The first vintages edited by Zevi architecture magazine Metron (first appeared in 1946 ) witnessed more of a strictly analytical language in the style of classical modernism. His 1945 published fundamental work Verso una architettura organica moved however already clear from this attitude and rose from the theoretical formulations of Frank Lloyd Wright to the actual source of inspiration for its architecture.

In July 1945, Zevi was a founding father of the " Associazione per l' Architettura Organica ( APAO )" ( Association for organic architecture). With the establishment of A.P.A.O. intended Zevi a detachment of any architecture that stood with fascism in context. According to the official monumental neoclassical - state architecture and the rationalist he advocated a third way towards a completely new, politically unloaded architecture. With the Architettura organica should create a liberal, social and human power. Important for Zevi it was their political orientation, which he - in the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright - saw in the written American-style democracy.

After the war, he became in 1948 professor of architectural history at the University of Venice ( IUAV ); In 1964 he moved to the Faculty of Architecture of the University La Sapienza in Rome. International attention was in 1984 conducted " International Architecture Symposium" Man and Space " at the Technical University of Vienna, where the next Bruno Zevi example, Justus Dahinden, Dennis Sharp, Pierre Vago, Jorge Glusberg, Otto Kapfinger, Frei Otto, Paolo Soleri, Ernst Gisel, Ionel bill, among other things participated.

1951 Bruno Zevi had organized an exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, in order to teach the followers of organic architecture, the great American model.

Zevi was one of the internationally recognized architectural historian and architecture writers. In particular, he has worked as a researcher and professor with Erich Mendelsohn and Frank Lloyd Wright. He wrote from 1954 to 2000, a weekly column in the newspapers Cronache and ' L' Espresso. In 1955 he founded his own magazine, Cronache di architettura, which existed until his death. His 1945 book publicized Verso un'architettura organica - a deliberate allusion to Le Corbusier's Vers une Architecture from 1923 - was published in 15 languages.

In the sixties and seventies he and colleagues were like Paolo Portoghesi often aim of architectural theory attacks, particularly by Manfredo Tafuri. Zevi advocated a philosophy of architecture based on the old Italian building cultures. Special attention, built by Bruno Zevi library in Dogliani (1962-1963) and the Italian pavilion at the World Exhibition in Brussels ( 1967).

Bruno Zevi has received numerous awards, such as honorary doctorates from the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of Haifa. He was an honorary member of the British Royal Institute of British Architects ( RIBA ) and the American Institute of Architects ( AIA). Zevi was the General Secretary and later Vice- President of the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica ( INU ) and Emeritus of the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA ) ( 1965-1977 ). Zevi was a lifelong political person and was from 1978 to 1988 Member of the Italian Parliament. Many years he was Professor of International Academy of Architecture (IAA ) in Sofia.

Bruno Zevi contributed their stimulating critical work to have linked the Italian architecture with the theories of organic architecture.

Zevi was married since 1940 with the journalist Tullia Zevi ( 1919-2011 ). He died a few days before his 82nd birthday at the consequences of an influenza at his home in Rome.

Quote

• " Art needs no philosophy, but also provides you the fabric. "

Works (selection)

• La costituzione dell'Associazione per l' Architettura Organica a Roma, in: Metron, Issue 2/ 1945 S.756
• Towards an Organic Architecture, as Verso un'architettura organica 1945, published by Faber & Faber London 1950
• The Modern Language of Architecture, as Saper vedere l' architettura 1948
• Storia dell'architettura moderna, Turin 1953
• Bruno Zevi, Ronald electricity, William A. Packer: Experimental Food Chemistry, Da Capo Press 1994, ISBN 0-306-80597-9
• Frank Lloyd Wright, Birkhauser Verlag, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5987-0
• Erich Mendelsohn - The Complete Works, Birkhauser Verlag, Basel 1999, ISBN 3-7643-5975-7