Architect Pierluigi Nicolin Has Died
Architect Pierluigi Nicolin has died. He was 83.
A leading figure in Italy of architectural criticism, pedagogy, research, and curation, Nicolin was born in 1941 in Bareggio, on the outskirts of Milan. He studied architecture at Milan’s Politecnico, graduating in 1967. He would later become a full professor in the university’s faculty of architecture, and he also taught for many years at the University of Palermo in Sicily, where he had several projects. In the early 1970s, he was a founding member of Gregotti Associati with Vittorio Gregotti, Pierluigi Cerri, Hiromichi Matsui, and Bruno Viganò. By the end of the decade, he founded his own firm, Studio Nicolin, in Milan.
As a designer, Nicolin worked across scales, mainly within the Italian context. Among his projects were the Accademia Bridge for the 1985 Venice Biennale and the bridge connecting Bergamo Alta and Bergamo Bassa (1992). In Sicily, he drew up the urban recomposition project for the city of Gibellina (1991). More recently, he won the competitions for the new Judicial Center of Trento (2006) and for the MOdAM – Museum and School of Fashion in Milan (2006).
Nicolin's works in Milan include many projects for the Garibaldi Repubblica area (1992–2004), the design of the Fmc Congress Center (2002), and the Provincial Center of the Province of Milan (2004). His "Porta di Milano," a luminous threshold that connects Terminal 1 of Malpensa airport to the train station, was inaugurated in April 2011. That same year, he completed the interior renovation of Pavilion 6 of the former Milan fairgrounds.
Nicolin was also very active in journalism and publishing. He authored several books, including ones on Mario Botta and Santiago Calatrava, and contributed to Domus and Casabella. Most notably, he served as editor in chief of the quarterly magazine Lotus International since 1978. His work with Lotus earned him the Gold Medal for Criticism awarded by the Triennale Milano in 2003. Last June, the Triennale, with Maxxi, honored him with a lifetime achievement award. On that occasion, Maxxi announced that the archives of Lotus International would become part of the architecture collection of the museum.
“With his passing, Italy loses a tireless generator of ideas and new visions on the world of cities and architecture—a world that, without him, his Lotus, and his sharp and fertile thoughts, will be poorer and sadder from today,” wrote architect Stefano Boeri, who currently serves as President of the Triennale Milano.
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