Giorgio Grassi

Giorgio Grassi (born October 27, 1935 in Milan, Italy), is one of Italy's most important architects. Much influenced by Ludwig Hilberseimer, Heinrich Tessenow and Adolf Loos, his extremely formal work is predicated on absolute simplicity, clarity, and honesty without ingratiation, rhetoric, or spectacular shape-making; it refers to historical archetypes of form and space and has a strong concern with the making of urban space. For these reasons Grassi is a non-conformist and a critic of conventional mainstream architecture.

Career

Grassi studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano university where he graduated in 1960. He worked for the magazine "Casabella-continuità" for 3 years until 1964 and has been professor at the Politecnico di Milano and other universities since 1965. [Giorgio Grassi, "I progetti, le opere e gli scritti", Electa, Milan, 1996] Grassi is a prolific writer and theorist, having most notably written "The Logical Construction of Architecture" (1967), "Architecture as a Craft" (1979) and other influential works.His designs incorporate a sensitivity to classical and neo-classical architecture (Alberti, Schinkel) but are at the same time deeply influenced by the modern movement, especially in Germany and Austria. Grassi's trademarks are his use of exposed brick in most of his buildings as well as square windows. In his writings, he refers to the socialist German architects of the 1920s as well as references to selected public buildings and public spaces as his guidelines. His works have been extensively published in the top international architecture magazines.

Buildings and projects

*Municipal centre of the Visconteo Castle of Abbiategrasso (1970)
*Student house, University of Chieti (1976)
*Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, Berlin (1984) (see: Niederkirchnerstraße)
*Roman theatre of Sagunto (1985)
*Building complex at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (1993)

Resource material

Grassi, Giorgio. 1988. Architettura, lingua morta = Architecture, dead language. Quaderni di Lotus, 9. Milano: Electa.

Grassi, Giorgio, Pilar Insausti, and Tito Llopis. 1994. Giorgio Grassi: obras y proyectos 1962-1993 : [exposición] 28 enero-20 marzo 1994. [Milan] : Electa.

References