Giuseppe Terragni Biography
Giuseppe Terragni (Meda, 18 April 1904 – Como, 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect, considered the greatest exponent of Italian rationalism. Giuseppe Terragni was born in Meda to Michele, builder and owner of a construction company and to Emilia Giamminola who contributed significantly to the training of the future architect[2]. To attend elementary and technical schools he moved to Como with his maternal relatives. In 1917 he enrolled in the mathematical physics course at the Technical Institute of Como, in 1921 he met Luigi Zuccoli, with whom he would later collaborate[3]. In 1921 he graduated and enrolled in the Higher School of Architecture at the Royal Higher Technical Institute (later Polytechnic of Milan); in 1925 he met Pietro Lingeri with whom he would establish a friendship and professional collaboration that would last a lifetime. On 16 November 1926 he graduated and a month later he signed, together with Luigi Figini, Adalberto Libera, Gino Pollini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco Silva and Carlo Enrico Rava, the first official document of Italian rationalism. Thus Group 7 was formed, which in the following years qualified itself and expanded into the Italian Rational Architecture Movement (MIAR)[4]. In 1927, the four articles considered the manifesto of Italian Rationalism were published in the magazine "Rassegna italiana". Terragni is one of the seven signatories of this manifesto. In 1933 he founded the magazine "Quadrante" together with his abstractionist companions, which would later be directed by Pier Maria Bardi and Massimo Bontempelli. Until 1940 Terragni was in full activity and had many works in progress: the Danteum (in collaboration with Lingeri, an allegorical architecture that celebrates Dante Alighieri, characterized by a spiral path), the project for the arrangement of the Cortesella district (and other complements of the master plan) of Como, the Casa del Fascio of Lissone and the refined and complex Casa Giuliani Frigerio, his latest masterpiece. The artist was then called to arms and, after a short period of training, was sent in 1941 first to Yugoslavia and then to Russia. He will return seriously damaged physically and psychologically, a condition that would then lead to his death. His is a human story: Giuseppe Terragni has in fact spent his entire existence trying to translate the ethical and social connotations of fascism into a democratic and civil key, through architecture. Terragni was only 39 years old when on 19 July 1943 he fell struck down by a cerebral thrombosis on the landing of the stairs of his girlfriend's house in Como.
