Portaluppi. Linea errante nell'architettura del Novecento

This is the first monograph on the great Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi (1888-1967) and it is published together with the exhibition devoted to him at the Triennale di Milano: an occasion to take a new look at this emblematic figure of the twentieth century Milanese and Italian art and architecture world and also at Milan, an ambiance full of contradictions, a real centre of research and creation in the different modern forms and at the same time the scene of that subtle restlessness that runs through the work of so many modern architects, designers and artists both in Italy and Europe.
The monograph examines the historical situation in Milan during the first half of the twentieth century, the studies carried out by Portaluppi and his first works dated 1910-1920, the historical Portaluppi, his deco period, Portaluppi the cartoonist and satirist, the style of energy and his vision of modernity, the form of energy, his Utopia between vision and design and projects for the city, Portaluppi and Milan, the political, cultural and university context, urban plans, public works, projects for historical buildings, bourgeois living spaces and the city, civil residence, bourgeois interiors and applied arts.
The volume includes essays by some of the leading experts on Italian twentieth century architecture (Guido Canella, Ornella Selvafolta, Luciano Patetta, Rossana Bossaglia, Antonello Negri, Michael Jakob, Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Giorgio Bigatti, Paolo Nicoloso, Cristina Bianchetti, Guido Zucconi, Augusto Rossari, Luca Molinari, Valerio Terraroli); these are followed by illustrations of projects and appendices (biography, bibliography, a register of the works) edited by the Portaluppi Foundation.
Piero Portaluppi was born in Milan in 1888 and he worked in this city from 1911 to 1967, the year of his death. He studied under Gaetano Moretti at the faculty of Architecture at Milan Polytechnic where he graduated in 1910, from 1919 he was a full-time assistant, he became a lecturer on Architectonic composition from 1936 and finally from 1939 to 1963 he was Professor of the Architecture faculty of Milan.
Portaluppi was a figure of great intellectual complexity and an influential personality within the Milanese liberal, industrial bourgeoisie, for whom he created some of his most outstanding works. During the twenties he was also a satirical cartoonist for "Guerin Meschino", "Uomo di Pietra" and other magazines, he also published a series of volumes on sixteenth century architecture in Lombardy and on his own works.