Vittorio Gregotti, the Italian architect who designed Palermo's ZEN neighbourhood and the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, has passed away at the age of 92 from coronavirus.
Gregotti died at the San Giuseppe hospital in Milan on 15 March 2020. His wife is still being treated for Covid-19 at the same hospital.
The architect, who founded his practice Gregotti Associati International in 1974, designed buildings including the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Stadium, Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, the Arcimboldi Opera Theatre in Milan, Lisbon's Belém Cultural Centre and the Università Bicocca in Milan.
Gregotti championed architecture's role in the Venice Biennale. Photo by Adriano Alecchi
Italy's minister of culture Dario Franceschini mourned Gregotti's passing, describing him as "a great Italian architect and urban planner who has given prestige to our country in the world". Pirelli CEO Tronchetti Provera said: "With Vittorio Gregotti one of the great protagonists of twentieth-century architecture disappears, who has also contributed to changing the face of Milan, projecting it into an international dimension."
In 1975 Gregotti curated an exhibition on architecture for La Biennale di Venezia, laying the foundations for the establishment of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 1980.
"I agreed to do it only if we also had a small first exhibition of architecture," Gregotti said in an interview on the origins of the architecture festival.
"If...