Franco Albini

(b Robbiate, Como, 17 Oct 1905; d Milan, 1 Nov 1977). Italian architect, urban planner and designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic of Milan (1929), he set up individual practice in Milan. One of the group of Rationalist architects who formed around the magazine Casabella, his work in the 1930s ranged from workers' housing in Milan (1936, 1938; with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti) to an ideal flat and furniture, exhibited at the Triennale in Milan in 1936. Immediately after World War II a series of masterplanning projects included schemes for the City of Milan (1946; with BBPR, Piero Bottoni, Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini) and for Reggio Emilia (1947-8; with Giancarlo De Carlo). Albini's post-war architecture has a Rationalist clarity combined with sensitivity to context, tradition and history. Expressed first in the Rifugio Pirovano (1949-51) at Cervinia, Aosta, it was the office building for the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (INA; 1950), Parma, with its simply stated concrete frame that set the pattern developed later in La Rinascente department store (1957-61), Rome. In this a steel frame forms Renaissance cornices at each floor level, and vertically folded red masonry panels pick up the immediate urban context. The post-war schemes for INA workers' housing (1950-51; with BBPR and Gianni Abricci) at Cesate and Mangiagalli workers' housing (1950-51; with Ignazio Gardella), both in Milan, are equally sensitive in their use of local materials: the theme was developed throughout the 1960s and 1970s in such housing schemes as those in Aosta (1965-70), Parma (1968-71) and Genoa (1969-74). Albini's international reputation was also based on his exhibition and museum design, including the conversion of the Palazzo Bianco (1950-51), Genoa, into a museum; its functional abstraction prefigured the work in the Palazzo Rosso (1952-61), Genoa, and in the Museo del Tesoro di San Lorenzo (1952-6), Genoa.

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Albini's design activities covered many spheres, from furniture, interior, and product design to architecture, planning, and museum design. He graduated in architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1929, setting up his own practice in the following year. Although he had gained experience working with the architect, designer, and writer Gio Ponti he became associated with the Rationalist movement in 1930s Italy, a modernizing outlook which often informed the clean, articulate forms of his products and buildings. He often experimented with radical solutions, as in his radio design of 1938, where he set the loudspeaker between two sheets of glass, and an experimental shelving system of 1940. He participated in the Milan Triennali, showcases for progressive Italian design from the 1930s onwards, showing furniture at the IV Triennale and designing interiors for the VI Triennale of 1936. At the IX Milan Triennale of 1951, although not typical of his work as a whole, he designed the Margherita cane armchair for La Rinascente's garden terrace display, for which he was awarded a Gold Medal. From the 1930s to the 1960s he was commissioned to design furniture, products, and lighting for many other companies such as Poggi, with which he had a close working relationship from 1950 to 1968. Amongst the designs for Poggi were his knockdown table of 1951, the Luisa armchair (awarded a Compasso d'Oro in 1955) and the PS16 rocking chair of 1956. His designs for Arflex included the Fiorenza chair (1952-5); other companies he worked for included Bonacina, Knoll, and Fontana Arte. From 1952 he also worked closely with the architect Franca Helg on a number of important projects including the Rinascente department store in Rome (1957-61) and stations and signage for the Milan subway (1962-9). He had been co-editor of the design periodical Casabella for a year immediately after the Second World War and taught at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice from 1949 to 1964 and also at Milan Polytechnic. As well as playing a significant role in Italian debates about architecture, planning, design, and museology he was a member of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (See ADI) and CIAM and won many awards including the Olivetti Architectural Prize in 1958.