Giovanni Muzio (12 February 1893 – 21 May 1982) was an Italian architect. Muzio was born and died in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He was closely associated with the

Novecento Italiano Novecento Italiano () was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 to create an art based on the rhetoric of the fascism of Mussolini. History Novecento Italiano was founded by Anselmo Bucci (1887–1955), Leonardo Dudreville (1885 ...

artists group.

Biography

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Milano, 1963) - BEIC 6328691

The son of Virginio Muzio, an accomplished architect, Muzio studied in Milan, and after participation in the war and a trip to Europe, in 1920 he opened in Milan (Via St. Ursula) a study with Giuseppe De Finetti,

Gio Ponti Giovanni "Gio" Ponti ( ͡ʒo18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher. During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more than a ...

, Emilio Lancia and Mino Fiocchi and actively participated in the cultural life of Milan. After service in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Muzio began his practice in 1920 and is responsible for the best-known work of the Novecento movement, the 1922 residential block called the Ca' Brutta ("Ugly House") on the Via Moscova in Milan. The style is a stripped-down

neo-classicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...

, five stories on a rounded corner patterned with real and

blind arch A blind arch is an arch found in the wall of a building that has been infilled with solid construction and so cannot serve as a passageway, door or window.''A Dictionary of Architecture''; Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966) T ...

es, and bands of color for each story. With

and the artist

Mario Sironi Mario Sironi (May 12, 1885 – August 13, 1961) was an Italian modernist artist who was active as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer. His typically somber paintings are characterized by massive, immobile forms. Biography He was bor ...

, Muzio designed the ''Popolo d'Italia'' pavilion for the 1928

Milan Trade fair Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, the Italian pavilion for the 1928 Pressa Exhibition in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and the exhibition buildings for the 1930

Triennale The Triennale di Milano is a design and art museum in the Parco Sempione in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the Palazzo dell'Arte, which was designed by Giovanni Muzio and built between 1931 and 1933; construction was fi ...

exhibition. Other buildings include the Milan Tennis Club (1923–1929), the Banca Bergamasca (1924–1927), and the Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa (1932). A notable project by Muzio is the design of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, completely rebuilt between 1960 and 1969. Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6364366.jpg,

Vizzola Ticino Vizzola Ticino is a village and ''comune'' of the province of Varese in Lombardy, Italy. It is on the banks of the Ticino River, immediately to the west of Strada Provinciale 52 on the western perimeter of Malpensa Airport. In the late 19th ce ...

power plant. Photo by Paolo Monti, 1968 Image:Nazaret Verkuendigungsbasilika BW 16.JPG , Basilica of the Annunciation

References

External links

photo of the Ca'Brutta in Milan

Fascismo - Architettura - Arte / Arte fascista web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Muzio, Giovanni 1893 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Italian architects Italian fascist architecture Architects from Milan Polytechnic University of Milan alumni