Angelo Mangiarotti

(b Milan, 26 Feb 1921). Italian architect and designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic of Milan (1948), he worked independently in Milan and in Chicago, where he became visiting professor at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology (1953-4). There he met Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann and studied their works carefully. Mies van der Rohe's emphasis on structure as the basis of form is reflected in his work, as is his interest in traditional Japanese architecture. Mangiarotti was particularly interested in construction techniques, and he developed increasingly sophisticated structural systems comprising prefabricated column or pilaster and beam components. The first example to be realized was the Church of Mater Misericordiae (1957), Baranzate, Milan, a graceful prefabricated concrete structure of rectilinear form with double cross-braced roof beams running the length of the nave. The quality and interest of the industrial buildings of the 1960s and 1970s lies in the clarity of the relationships between structural elements and the enclosing envelopes, which are often treated like transparent skins. The elegant Elmag Factory (1966) at Monza is perhaps the best-known of this period. The importance that Mangiarotti placed on the structural joint as generator of form is evident in both his architectural and product design. Examples include the prestressed structural systems for industrial application of 1976, or those designed for railway stations in and around Milan and the 'Eros' series of tables (1975), in which the leg joints are formed in the marble tops. Less well-known but also refined in the use of materials and techniques are the villa (1957) at San Martino di Castrozza, Trento (1957), and the flats at Via Gavirate (1957) and Via Quadronno (1960) in Milan, and at Monza (1977), or, more typical of Mangiarotti's structural virtuosity, the single-storey prefabricated houses (1962) at Marcianese, Casserta.

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