The Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti, who notably designed the cultural center of Belem in Portugal or the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, died Sunday at the age of 92 in Milan. It was pneumonia linked to the new coronavirus which prevailed, report the Italian media.
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Gregotti had been hospitalized in Milan after contracting the Covid-19, the Italian agency AGI and the daily Corriere della Sera said on Sunday. According to this newspaper, Gregotti's wife, Mariana Mazza, is hospitalized in the same Milanese facility.
Lombardy, of which Milan is the capital, is the Italian region most affected by the coronavirus with more than 9000 cases currently positive and 966 deaths.
A certain attachment for France
Vittorio Gregotti alongside Christine Albanel, former Minister of Culture, at the inauguration of the Grand Théâtre de Provence in 2007. BORIS HORVAT / AFP
Born in Novara in 1927, Vittorio Gregotti graduated in architecture in 1952 from Polytechnique in Milan. He designed the Marassi stadium in Genoa before the 1990 Football World Cup in Italy, the Arcimboldi Theater in Milan or the Belem cultural center in Lisbon, Portugal. He also carried out the requalification plan for the Bicocca district in Milan and participated in the design of the Olympic facilities in Barcelona for the 1992 Olympic Games.
In a "Proust Questionnaire", republished on Sunday by the Corriere della Sera , Vittorio Gregotti had shown a certain attachment for France. He then spoke of his visit to Paris in the summer of 1947 as the happiest moment of his life, of his love for French cinema: Renoir, Carné and the New Wave. "A little drawing that Fernand Léger gave me half a century ago," he revealed when asked what object was dearest to him.
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Tributes have multiplied in Italy, while the population is still called upon to remain confined to their homes. “We greet Vittorio Gregotti with deep sadness, one of our greatest architects and ambassadors in the world. Milan owes him a lot, from the first room performed at the Triennale in 1951, to the Bicocca district, entirely refurbished by him. Thank you for everything, ” said Beppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, on Twitter.
Stefano Boeri, another Italian architect, paid tribute to him on Facebook by welcoming "a master of international architecture, an essayist, critic, professor, editorial writer and polemicist" , who "wrote the history of our culture" .
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