Franco Albini

Franco Albini is an Italian architect, urban planner, designer and academic, born in 1905 in Robbiate. He is considered one of the most appreciated architects of Italian rationalism of the 20th century. After spending his childhood in Brianza, he moved to Milan, where he earned a degree in Architecture at the Polytechnics in 1929.

He began working at Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia's firm, with whom he worked for about three years, and thanks to which obtained his first international contacts like the one with Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. The turning point in his stylistic language, up until now a twentieth-century imprint, will come after his meeting with Edoardo Persico, which brought him closer to rationalism and to the editorial staff of the renowned magazine Casabella. Thus we reached the year 1932 when he opened his architectural firm, initially dealing with public housing.

His greatest masterpieces are to be found especially in the context of exhibits and exhibitions that will allow him to experience that balance, typical of his style, between rigour and poetic imagination, and which will reach its peak in 1933 at the opening of the new headquarters of the Milan Triennale in the Palazzo dell'Arte. Here the great master is able to clearly express his rationalist and innovative thinking, experimenting with new materials and new solutions.

Franco Albini is a complete designer, whose work ranges from construction to design, from installations to urban planning and who strongly believes in the social role of the architect as a professional working for people.

Alongside his career as an architect, a very important role is also reserved for that of designer, which led to the production of some extremely innovative furnishing accessories.