Luigi Moretti
Luigi Walter Moretti (2 January 1907 – 14 July 1973) was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy from the 1930s, he designed buildings such as the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, and Il Girasole ("The Sunflower") house, both in Rome. He was the founder of the Institute for Operations Research and Applied Mathematics Urbanism, where he developed his research on the history of architecture, and on the application of algorithmic methods to architectural design. He is recognized as the inventor of parametric architecture.[1]
This article is about the Italian architect. For the Italian archbishop, see Luigi Moretti (archbishop). For the Italian politician, see Luigi Moretti (politician).
Luigi Moretti
2 January 1907
14 July 1973 (aged 66)
Italian
Royal School of Architecture in Rome
Architect
- Fencing academy at Foro Italico, Rome
- Tour de la Bourse, Montreal, with Pier Luigi Nervi
- Watergate complex, Washington
Career[edit]
Education and academic career[edit]
He was born on via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life.[2][3] He was the natural son of Luigi Rolland (1852–1921), engineer and architect, born in Rome in a Belgian family, whose most important work is Teatro Adriano, and Maria Giuseppina Moretti.[4]
He attended primary and secondary school at Collegio San Giuseppe - Istituto De Merode and from 1925 he studied at the Royal School of Architecture in Rome.[2][4] In 1929, Moretti graduated with honors, with a project for a college of higher education Rocca di Papa, where he won the Giuseppe Valadier award.
After degree, in 1931 he won a three-year scholarship for Roman Studies, established by the Governorate of Rome and the Royal School of Architecture. With this grant he worked with archeologist an art historian Corrado Ricci, in the arrangement of the areas east and north of Trajan's Market.
In these years he also worked as assistant for the professorships of Vincenzo Fasolo (architect of Mamiani Lyceum and Duca d'Aosta Bridge, both in Rome) and Gustavo Giovannoni, at the restoration chair.[2][4]