Piero Portaluppi is the definitive monograph on one of 20th-century Italian architecture's most restless and underexamined figures — an eclectic master of hydroelectric architecture and Milanese urbanism whose reputation swung from celebrated to forgotten and back again.
About This Book
Produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Piero Portaluppi, this exhaustive volume rehabilitates an architect who defied categorisation. Portaluppi never aligned himself with a single school or style, yet his projects reshaped the face of Milan and defined a particular strain of Italian modernism. The monograph brings together new colour photography of his architectural works and interiors by Ciro Frank Schiappa alongside three previously unpublished essays illustrated with vintage photographs, views, models, and archival ephemera — cartoons, sundials, postcards, newspaper cuttings — that illuminate the full breadth of his intellectual life. Essential for anyone serious about 20th-century Italian architecture and the cultural politics of architectural memory.
Key Features
- 400 pages of new colour photography, vintage archival images, architectural drawings, models, and personal ephemera
- Photography by Ciro Frank Schiappa; vintage photographs by Antonio Paoletti; essays by Paolo Portoghesi; biography by Jacopo Ghilardotti; list of works and bibliography by Ferruccio Lupi, conservator at Fondazione Piero Portaluppi
- Interview with Portaluppi's nephew, architect Piero Castellini, conducted by film director Luca Guadagnino
- Published by Skira Editore, [Details available upon request]
What You'll Discover
- How Portaluppi's resistance to stylistic allegiance shaped a singular body of work that sits outside the standard narratives of Italian modernism
- His mastery of hydroelectric architecture — a specialised and historically significant typology largely absent from mainstream architectural histories
- The scope of his urbanism through project views and models that document his transformative influence on Milan's built environment
- The personal and cultural dimensions of his practice, revealed through cartoons, diagrams, sundials, and other ephemera that map his broader intellectual curiosity
About the Author
Piero Maranghi is the author of this monograph. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 400
- Dimensions: 26.5 x 34 x 4 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788857247465
- Publisher: Skira Editore
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and historians with an interest in Italian modernism, scholars of 20th-century urban design, and collectors seeking exhaustive monographic treatments of overlooked masters.