Paolo Portoghesi
Architect
Biographical notes
Paolo Portoghesi discovered his vocation as an architect at a young age and ever since has spent his time reading, travelling, writing, designing, listening to music and teaching with the aim of demonstrating that Gustav Mahler was right when he said that, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”. His buildings are to be found in almost all regions of Italy, including a large Mosque in Rome and theatre in Catanzaro, an urban park in Abano and a Piazza in Poggioreale, the Latin Quarter in Treviso and a tower at the Città della Speranza children’s hospital in Padua, as well as churches in Salerno, Terni, Vicenza, Calcata and Castellaneta. Outside Italy, his projects include the palace of King Hussein of Jordan, a Tower project in Shanghai, the Mar Azul tourist district in Argentina, the Great Mosque of Strasbourg, a residential unit in Berlin, a square in Pirmasens and a cultural centre in Khartoum.
In 1964 he co-authored a monograph on the architecture of Michelangelo in collaboration with Bruno Zevi. Some of his books, such as Roma Barocca, Dopo l’architettura Moderna and his monograph on Borromini, have become modern classics, while his investigations have covered wide-ranging historical and theoretical topics including the relationship between architecture and nature, a theme referenced in the title of his book Architettura e Natura published in 1999.
He began his academic career in 1962, teaching Italian literature at the Valle Giulia Architecture faculty of the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1968 he was appointed dean of the faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan, then in 1975 he returned to the Sapienza University in Rome to teach “geoarchitecture”, a subject he himself invented which has the aim of persuading architects to respect nature and to embrace a practice of “happy degrowth”. In 1980 he opened the Architecture section of the Venice Biennale with Via Novissima, a virtual street that was subsequently transferred to Paris and San Francisco. He was the chairman of the Venice Biennale from 1984 to 1993.
He has received many awards and honorary degrees and is an officer of the Legion of Honour, a member of numerous academies and current chairman of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca.
He has lived for many years in the village of Calcata just north of Rome with his wife Giovanna, an invaluable collaborator in every area of his work.
Paolo Portoghesi discovered his vocation as an architect at a young age and ever since has spent his time reading, travelling, writing, designing, listening to music and teaching with the aim of demonstrating that Gustav Mahler was right when he said that, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”. His buildings are to be found in almost all regions of Italy, including a large Mosque in Rome and theatre in Catanzaro, an urban park in Abano and a Piazza in Poggioreale, the Latin Quarter in Treviso and a tower at the Città della Speranza children’s hospital in Padua, as well as churches in Salerno, Terni, Vicenza, Calcata and Castellaneta. Outside Italy, his projects include the palace of King Hussein of Jordan, a Tower project in Shanghai, the Mar Azul tourist district in Argentina, the Great Mosque of Strasbourg, a residential unit in Berlin, a square in Pirmasens and a cultural centre in Khartoum.
In 1964 he co-authored a monograph on the architecture of Michelangelo in collaboration with Bruno Zevi. Some of his books, such as Roma Barocca, Dopo l’architettura Moderna and his monograph on Borromini, have become modern classics, while his investigations have covered wide-ranging historical and theoretical topics including the relationship between architecture and nature, a theme referenced in the title of his book Architettura e Natura published in 1999.
He began his academic career in 1962, teaching Italian literature at the Valle Giulia Architecture faculty of the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1968 he was appointed dean of the faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan, then in 1975 he returned to the Sapienza University in Rome to teach “geoarchitecture”, a subject he himself invented which has the aim of persuading architects to respect nature and to embrace a practice of “happy degrowth”. In 1980 he opened the Architecture section of the Venice Biennale with Via Novissima, a virtual street that was subsequently transferred to Paris and San Francisco. He was the chairman of the Venice Biennale from 1984 to 1993.
He has received many awards and honorary degrees and is an officer of the Legion of Honour, a member of numerous academies and current chairman of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca.
He has lived for many years in the village of Calcata just north of Rome with his wife Giovanna, an invaluable collaborator in every area of his work.
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