Gino Becker Biography
Gino Becker was born in Turin in 1913. He is part of a generation of architects who was culturally formed in Turin in the 1930s and who became more established in the 1950s.
During the first post-war years, he dedicated himself mainly to scenography, furnishings and competitions. It is the Turin period of Mollino, Casorati and the magazine "Agorà", a city full of ideas and discussions, divided between the drive for innovation and the influence of Croce's tradition. In this context, Becker developed his personality as a technical-intellectual, becoming almost the prototype of the cultured Turin architect, linked to the technical tradition of his profession and committed on an intellectual, political and above all professional level.
The fifties were characterized by intense professional activity, during which he worked on the two residential complexes at "Falchera", on the headquarters of Minerva Medica, on the Cooperative for RIV employees and on the elevation of Via Baretti, recognized today as a representative example of the architect's poetics and practice.
Equipped with a remarkable knowledge of Dutch and Central European architecture, as well as being constantly attentive to the demands of organic architecture, Becker dedicated great attention to detail, designing the most minute details of his buildings and linking them to the discreet and modest grace of his works . Over the years, he maintained a constant intellectual exchange with Passanti, Benevolo, Zevi, Gentili Tedeschi and others. In the last ten years of his life he dedicated himself to civil commitment, once again understood as a consequence of professional commitment.
The controversy with the Order, in which he was personally involved in 1965, and the subsequent research conducted within the Comité de Liason of European architects, are only signs of a tenacious and passionate attempt to combat the degenerations of professional behaviour, to to whom he feels deeply connected from an ethical point of view.
