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Piero Portaluppi (19 March 1888 – 6 July 1967) was an Italian architect.[1] He is known for his prolific output, having designed over 100 buildings in Milan.
Pietro (known as Piero) Portaluppi was born in Milan, son of the engineer Oreste Portaluppi and wife Luisa Gadda.
He graduated in 1905 from the Istituto Tecnico Carlo Cattaneo and registered at the Politecnico, studying with and Carlo Calzecchi. During this time, he worked as a caricaturist with the satirical newspapers Il Babau, A quel paese, and Guerin Meschino.[2]
In September 1910, he graduated as an architect and won the Gold Medal of the College of Engineers and Architects of Milan, as its laureate. For the Conti Electrical Company, he worked on hydroelectric plants, mostly located in Formazza. The most famous are in Verampio (1912–1917), Valdo (1920–1923), Crevoladossola (1923–1924), and (1925–1929). For the Azienda Elettrica Municipale di Milano, he designed the plant of Grosio (1918–1920).
During the First World War, Portaluppi worked for the military in the Veneto and Friuli Regions. He resumed his professional activity after the war, rebuilding la Pinacoteca di Brera, the Villa Fossati, and the Casa degli Atellani in Corso Magenta, the home of Ettore Conti. Conti introduced Portaluppi to Milan's high society and he started to have the city's most important families as clients such as Borletti, Fossati, Venti and Crespi, Angelo Campiglio, and Mino Brughera. In 1920, Portaluppi designed two projects that are viewed as emblematic of his architecture: the skyscraper S.K.N.E. for the area of Allabanuel, and an utopian city, Hellytown.[3]
Other projects during this period were the Palazzo della Banca Commerciale Italiana (1928–1932), the Planetarium Hoepli (1929–1930), residential buildings for the Buonarroti-Carpaccio-Giotto family (1926–1930), the Casa Crespi on Corso Venezia (1927–1930), and the Palazzo Crespi on Corso Giacomo Matteotti (1928–1932). He designed the Italian Pavilion for the Universal Exposition in Barcelona in 1929.
Among his most important works are the Palazzo INA, Piazza Diaz (1932–1937), the Villa Necchi Campiglio on via Mozart (1932–1935),[4] [5] (1934–1936),[6] [7] the Palazzo Ras on via Torino (1935–1938), and Case Brughera on via Tiziano in Milan (1936–1938).[8] Between 1934 and 1938, he worked on the historic restoration of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and continued that work after the war.
Following the Second World War, he devoted himself increasingly to teaching and professional organizations. He continued to design and collaborated on later architectural projects with Gio Ponti (1956–1962). Portaluppi "had fallen into relative obscurity, tainted after the war by his professional association with the [Fascist] regime", until 2009 when the Villa Necchi Campiglio was used as a principal shooting location for Luca Guadagnino's film I Am Love. The house also featured prominently in the 2021 film House of Gucci by Ridley Scott.[9]
In July 1913, Portaluppi married Lia Baglia. They had two children: Luisa and Oreste (known familiarly as Tuccio). His son Tuccio died in the Second World War. On 6 July 1967, Piero Portaluppi died in his house on Corso Magenta in Milan.
Starting in 1950 Piero Portaluppi collaborated with Gualtiero Galmanini until his death, establishing himself as a key figure in Italian rationalism. Although he participated in Galmanini's projects, he did not always sign official documents, and many materials were lost in a fire at the land registry in Milan. In his later years, Portaluppi increasingly delegated his projects to Galmanini.