Piero Bottoni Biography
BOTTONI, Pietro (Piero). - He was born to Vincenzo and Carolina Levi on 11 July 1903 in Milan, the city where he always lived and to which he linked much of his activity. Having obtained the title of professor of architectural drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, he then graduated, in 1926, from the Higher School of Architecture of the Polytechnic. In April 1928 he participated, with a project on the use of color in the building wings of urban streets, in the 1st Italian Exhibition of Rational Architecture held in Rome, thus announcing, from the beginning, his convinced and full adherence to rationalist ideas ( Architectural chromatisms, in Architecture and decorative arts, VII [1927-1928], pp. 80-85; L. Meneghetti, The chromatic city, in Le Corbusier "Urbanism", Milan 1983, pp. In 1930 he was among the founders of the Italian Movement for Rational Architecture (MIAR); in December he participated in the third edition of the Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderni (CIAM) held in Brussels and then, in 1933, in the IV CIAM in Athens, remaining a member and CIAM delegate for Italy until 1951. From 1929 he was also part of the Comité international pour la résolution du. problème architectural contemporain (CIRPAC). Again in 1930 he created the functional furnishings of the kitchen in the "electric house" built on the initiative of the Edison company at the IV Triennale of Monza (O. Selvafolta, Studies, projects, models and objects of Italian rationalism, in Rassegna, II [1980], n -4, pp.255.; Polin, The electric house of Figini and Pollini, Rome 1983, passim). In March 1931 he was present with several works, including a project for a villa by the sea, at the II Italian Exhibition of Rational Architecture held in Rome. The theme of the single-family villa was taken up by B. in the following years, leading to the creation, among other things, of the Villa dello Strologo in Livorno (P. Ma., Villa of a professional in Livorno, in Architecture, XV [1936], pp . 65-67), the Davoli villa in Reggio Emilia, both from 1934, and an innovative transformation of an eighteenth-century villa near Imola, between 1935 and 1938 (in collaboration with M. Pucci): all projects that show a complete adherence to a functional language, devoid of emphasis and indeed aimed at minimizing linguistic elements. But in those years B. was above all a participant, with great moral coherence, in the battle for the affirmation of the social role of modern architecture, becoming a propagandist of his theoretical and practical ideals and bringing international experiences back into the Italian cultural situation, first and foremost place of German origin, known to him directly. It is from this perspective that the collaborations with various periodicals (Rassegna diarchitettura, Quadrante, etc.) and many of the design experiences of those years must be seen: the participation in 1932 (in collaboration with EA Griffini, E. Faludi and G. Manfredi ) in the competition announced by the autonomous social housing institute of Milan for a residential neighborhood in the S. Siro area, with a project characterized by a rigorous examination of housing standards and the socialization of services (F. Reggiori, The competition for the neighborhood "San Siro" of the Institute of Social Housing of Milan, in Architecture, XII [1933], pp. 57-58); the creation at the V Triennale of Milan in 1933 of a group of holiday homes (in collaboration with E. Faludi and EA Griffini) and of some types of public housing (in collaboration with Griffini), in which, as a response to the housing shortages of the moment, standardized construction and furnishing methods were introduced (The V Triennale di Milano, ibid., special issue, pp. 54-57, 66-67); the geometric dwelling house built in 1934 in via Mercadante in Milan (B. Moretti, Case d'habitation in Italia, Milan 1939, pp. 98 s.).
