In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture

In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
Moretti’s Girasole (1949) at Viale B. Buozzi 64. Photo: Michael Waters
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
AAR group at MAXXI Luigi Moretti exhibit with Prof. Francesco Garofalo and Prof. Aldo Aymonino (fourth and fifth from left). Photo: Michael Waters
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
9.15 AM: Ex-GIL Trastevere. Bottom photo: Corey Brennan (left, speaking) with Arch. Luigi Prisco. Photos: Michael Waters
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture
In Rome, A Day-long Exploration of Luigi Moretti’s Architecture

Luigi Moretti (1907-1973) is widely considered the most important Italian architect of the twentieth century. He produced a massive body of work in the years 1930–73 in Italy and further afield. Best known to Americans is surely his 1961 Watergate Complex in Washington DC.

On Friday 26 November, a group of more than twenty Academy Fellows and visitors grouped together for a nine hour quest to examine some of Moretti’s most significant prewar and postwar constructions in Rome. The day concluded with a visit to Luigi Moretti architetto: Dal razionalismo all’informale, the inaugural exhibition of MAXXI Architectura, a show which closed 28 November.

Sites visited included the Casa della gioventù in Trastevere (1933); modifications to the Porta S. Sebastiano (1940, apartment for Ettore Muti); the exhibit “Luigi Moretti Architetto. Storia, Arte, Scienza” at Accademia di San Luca; the Casa detta il Girasole (1949); Accademia di scherma at Foro Italico [sadly, exterior only] (1936); the base, very possibly by Moretti, of the long-lost ‘Cacciatore’ statue (1936, rediscovered 2009) on the slopes of Monte Mario; at Foro Italico, the Piazzale dell’Impero (1937) and ex-Palestra del Duce (1936); and the visit to Moretti exhibit at MAXXI. Moretti’s work for the Villaggio Olimpico (1960) was the focus of an Academy walk in October.

Mellon Professor Corey Brennan, FAAR’88 led the tour for the Academy. Guest presenters on this occasion included Arch. Luigi Prisco (ex-GILTrastevere), dott.ssa Valentina Follo (University of Pennsylvania), Emily Morash (Brown University + AAR), dott. Paolo Pedinelli (CONI), Prof. Aldo Aymonino (Venezia), and Prof. Francesco Garofalo (Pescara). Special thanks also to Arch. Pippo Ciorra and Arch. Esmeralda Valente (MAXXI Architettura) and especially Giusi Faustini (AIG Ostello Foro Italico A. F. Pessina = Foresteria Sud).

AAR Programs Assistant Giulia Barra organized the day trip for the Academy; Donald and Maria Cox Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize Michael J. Waters (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) photographed the site visits.

Press inquiries

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Maddalena Bonicelli

Rome Press Officer

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m.bonicelli.ext [at] aarome.org (m[dot]bonicelli[dot]ext[at]aarome[dot]org)