| Albini's work has been defined "smooth, hard, precise, acute, essential"... |
| Franco
Albini (Robbiate, Come, 1905 - Milan 1977)) Albini graduated in 1929 from the Milan Polytechnics and opened his professional studio in this city the ensuing year, making his debut as a designer at the IV Milan Triennial. He elaborated the project for the San Siro district in Milan in 1932 together with the architects Camus and Palanti; was active in the fields of furniture and interior design (House with steel structure, together with Camus, Minoletti, Mazzoleni, Pagano and Palanti, at the V Milan Triennial, 1933; Permanent INA Pavilion, Milan Trade Fair, 1935; Italian Exhibition of aeronautics, Milan 1934; Exhibition of home interiors at the VI Milan Triennial, 1936). Together with Camus and Palanti he realized a number of working-class residential districts with economical tenement buildings in Milan: the "Fabio Filzi " district (1936), the "Gabriele D'Annunzio" and "Ettore Ponti" districts (1938-1941). He has designed numerous objects, such as: a wireless set in metal and glass for Securit (1938), a series of knock down furniture for the Italian colonies (1937); the Luisa armchair ("Compasso d'oro" prize in 1955) and a bookshelf with tensile structure in wood and steel cables (1939-1949). Albini was professor at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice from 1949 to 1954, and held a chair of Architectural Composition and Interior Architecture since 1952. He taught as permanent professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Turin during the academic year of 1954-1955; he then became permanent professor in Venice and, since 1964, permanent professor of Architectural Composition at the Milan Polytechnics. He was the author of numerous projects during the postwar years, such as: the Museum of the Treasure of San Lorenzo, Genoa (1952) and, with Franca Helg (ref.) who joined his studio in 1952, the La Rinascente department store, Rome (1957-1961, "Compasso d'oro" prize in 1963) and the stations of the Milan underground (1962-1969, "Compasso d'oro" prize in 1964). Franca Helg (Milan 1920-1989) Graduated in architecture from the Milan Polytechnics in 1945, Helg has worked with Franco Albini since 1951 (ref.) and has been his associate since 1952. She has collaborated with Antonio Piva since 1962 and with Marco Albini since 1965; she continued the activity of the studio together with the latter after the death of the founder. Permanent professor of architectural composition at the Milan Polytechnics, she has held courses and lectures of composition in Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Cordoba (Argentina) and in other Latin America countries. |
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