Luigi Moretti
Luigi Walter Moretti ( born January 2, 1907 in Rome, † 14 July 1973 in Capraia Isola ) was an Italian architect.
Biography
Luigi Moretti was born in 1907 as son of Giuseppina Moretti and the Belgian architect Luigi Rolland in a house in the Via Napoleone in Rome. The 1921 deceased father left the family after a short time. Luigi Moretti first attended the technical school and then high school. 1925 Moretti wrote to the School of Architecture in Rome, where he graduated in 1930 with the highest rating.
As a student Moretti had opened an office in Via Panisperna in Rome. Here is his collaboration began with the architects Brando Savelli, Cino Pennisi, Giuseppe Poggi and the painters Achille Capizzano and Franco Gentilini. With only 26 years he designed in 1933 the plans for the construction of the building of the Fascist Youth ( Casa del Balilla ) in Rome. This house already showed Moretti's flair for the sculptural shapes of rooms, his compositional elegance and versatility. In particular, the gymnastics tract that connects the rounded off the body to the back of the house, Moretti emphasizes close to the language of rationalist architecture. Similar to the open-air school in Amsterdam - built in 1930 by Johannes Duiker - has also this module tract about two completely open projectiles that are merely edged here from white plastered reinforced concrete columns. 1937 this house was officially opened as " Casa della Gil " ( Gioventù Italiana del Littorio ). Built almost the same time and in a similar architectural language Moretti other buildings for the Fascist youth, such as the "Casa del Balilla " in Piacenza (1933-1934) or the "Casa del Balilla " in Trecate (Novara), the 1934-1936 was realized.
In contrast, let Moretti's early representative buildings clearly a change of course for the official state architecture of the fascist regime recognize. Examples of this are the prominent, built in the style of a monumental neoclassical building at the Foro Italico (formerly Foro Mussolini ). For example, the built in 1936, clad in white marble panels Fencing Academy ( Accademia della Scherma ) or the local sports hall ( Palestra ) from the same year. Moretti's competition entry from 1937 for the " Piazza Imperiale " on the site of the planned World Expo " EUR " in Rome emphasizes with his monumental -classical architecture this change in course.
Between 1942 and 1945, Moretti traces lost: About this time there are different biographical information. Either through war injury or a car accident ( near Rome) Moretti spent some time in hospital. After the liberation of Italy in 1945, he was asked for a few months in San Vittore prison in Milan for attempting the re-establishment of a political party (together with the philosopher Edmondo Cione ) under arrest. In the same year he founded together with the noble Adolfo Fossatoro the company " Cofimprese ," a finance company for construction companies with headquarters in Milan.
Post-war period
In the postwar period succeeded Moretti as one of the few Italian architects to realize both in Milan and in Rome significant projects. The highly regarded residential buildings Il Girasole, which was built in 1947-1950 in Rome (on behalf of Cofimprese ), stands for the visible beginning of a new creative phase. Although he is committed to the design principles of modernity, Moretti succeed on the use of stone anchoring with the place. Il Girasole is characterized by the contrasting of light, projecting facade with its horizontal bands of windows and the severity of the stone pedestal region: The bias cut stone slabs with their texture refer here to the tactile qualities of this material.
1953, a few years later, Moretti built the residential and office building on Corso Italia in Milan. Also in this building realized for Cofimprese he demonstrated his ability to compose building suspenseful. An ensemble of five buildings with different heights added Moretti as creatively homogeneous unit in the historic center of Milan, a. Especially the tapered building which projects far into the street space expressively over an underlying base, gives the ensemble its distinctive shape.
Its expressive - influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright - form language, which has a close proximity to organic architecture, distinguished his later work - in particular the phase until the early 1960s - from. However, Moretti's proximity to the organic architecture exhausted itself in formals. In stark contrast, say, to Bruno Zevi, the heavily made in Italy for an organic architecture that combines Moretti with its architecture no democratic or humanistic claims. Especially in the postwar period Moretti acted rather with the nobility and the upper middle class, built elegant villas, rather than to devote himself to the then virulent problem of housing shortage.
Journalistic activity
1950 Luigi Moretti founded the magazine for architecture and art Spazio, which he headed until 1953. Editorial support was Moretti during this time by his employee in architectural office, Felicia Abbruzzese. With Spazio an important forum for the collaboration of architects and artists should be created. Above all, there was the common reflection on the space in the foreground. Overall, published in the period from July 1950 to April 1953 seven editions of Spazio.
Since 1962, Luigi Moretti was suffering from heart trouble, he had to be treated in the hospital again and again. In 1973 he died while on a short holiday on the Tuscan island of Isola di Capraia of heart failure.