Franca Helg Biography
Born in Milan to a Swiss father and a mother originally from Northern Germany (who was called Alice Ahrens), Franca Helg, while still a student, completed her training as an architect in the BBPR studio (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, Ernesto Nathan Rogers), where he learned to know and apply the ethics, poetics and language of rationalism, to which he would remain faithful throughout his career. In 1952, seven years after graduating, he began working in Franco Albini's studio, giving life to that extraordinary partnership which gave rise to buildings, museums, installations and objects that became part of the history of architecture and design. In the 25 years in which their collaboration lasted, the projects followed one another, from urban planning interventions to architectural ones, see, among many, the La Rinascente department store in Rome (1957-1960), the new spa Luigi Zoja in Salsomaggiore (1964-1970) and the SNAM building in San Donato Milanese (1969-1972). Then there are the restorations, such as that of the tomb of Margaret of Luxembourg in Palazzo Bianco (1956-86) and those of Palazzo Rosso (1952-62) in Genoa; of the Fossati block (1974-1980) in Milan and the renovation of the Sant'Agostino complex (1963-1979) also in Genoa; and also museum installations, such as that of the new art gallery of the Castello Sforzesco (1972-1980) in Milan and the cloister and civic museum of the Eremitani in Padua (1969-1986). And again the works for the MM1 red line metro in Milan (1963, with which Franca Helg and Franco Albini, in 1964, won the Compasso d'oro award together with Bob Noorda), up to the project for the Molino Dorino station of the same Metropolitana (1980-85), without forgetting the furnishings of the Olivetti store in Paris (1958-60), to name just a few. (It should be remembered that Antonio Piva and Marco Albini also joined the Albini-Helg studio in the 1960s and have co-signed the projects since then.)
