Franco Purini

Franco Purini was born near Frosinone. In Rome he studied architecture with L. Quaroni, with whom he graduated in 1971. Since 1966 he has had a studio with Laura Thermes, with whom he faced urban and architectural language problems, producing a solid number of projects, among numerous national and international contests. Alongside this activity he had a constant engagement with drawn architecture. His tables are preserved at the I.U.A.V. archives, the Museum of Architecture in Frankfurt, the Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, the A.A.M. collection of Rome and a few private collections.

Since 1977 he has been teaching at the University of Reggio Calabria, at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and since 1994 at the I.U.A.V. of Venice. The Purini/Thermes studio took part in a lot of editions of the Biennale di Venezia, in 1980 building one of the twenty façades of the “Strada Novissima”; in 1985 with the project of the Ponte dell’Accademia which won the prize “Leone di Pietra”; in 2000 at the show “Less Aesthetics, More Ethics”. For the Triennale di Milano, he coordinated in 1987 the “Proggetto Roma” at the show “Viaggio in Italia: nove progetti per nove città” and he prepared in 1996 the Padiglione Italia. In 1998 he exposed his work at the Centro de Arquitectura e Urbanismo di Rio de Janeiro. Among the creations, besides the works planned with Vittorio Gregotti as the Quartiere Zen in Palermo and the University of Calabria in Cosenza, the Casa del Farmacista, three squares and the Casa Pirrello must be remembered; in Naples a residential intervention for which he obtained the national award IN ARCH 1991-92, in Poggioreale in Sicily the S. Antonio Chapel from Padova (1984).

He is part of the group which is finishing the University of Florence’s il Polo Scientifico. Among the publications we remember “Around The Shadow line: beyond Urban Architecture “, Architectural Association, London 1984; “Sette Paesaggi”, Electa 1989; “Dal progetto”, Kappa 1992; “Comporre l’architettura”, Laterza 2000; “Franco Purini”, Electa 2000. He is at present part of the scientific committee of the magazines “Modo”, “Piano, progetto, città”, “Rassegna di Architettura e Urbanistica”.