Giulio Minoletti Biography
Giulio Minoletti (Milan, 19 April 1910 – Milan, 14 January 1981) was an Italian urban planner, architect and designer. Born in Milan, Giulio Minoletti has carried out professional activities in the urban planning, architectural and industrial design fields. He graduated in 1931 from the high school of architecture of the Polytechnic of Milan; from 1933 to 1949 he was in charge of architecture and architectural composition at the Polytechnic of Milan; in 1947 he was part of the Building Commission and the Master Plan Commissions of the City of Milan, of the National Institute of Urban Planning since its foundation and of the permanent jury for the awarding of the Compasso d'Oro of the association for industrial design. Since 1948 he has been a member of the steering committee of the Center for Housing Studies established within the National Research Council; from 1953 to 1955 he was president of the MSA (Movimento Studi per l'Architettura). Awarded a gold medal at all the Milan Triennials and the Grand Prize for Architecture at the XI Triennale, he represented Italy in 1956 within the international commission for the settlement of the United Nations in Geneva. He was the protagonist of the main competitions of the 1930s, such as the national Falck competition for large steel-structured retail stores and the competition for the Palazzo dell'Acqua e della Luce (1940 with F. Albini, I. Gardella, G. Palanti, G. Romano and with the sculptor Lucio Fontana); participates in the drafting of the "Green Milan" project with Albini, Gardella, Romano, Palanti and Predaval. Among the main Milanese works are INA Casa at QT8 in the 1950s with Maurizio Mazzocchi and Giò Ponti, the Casa del Cedro (via Fatebenefratelli, 1951) and the Palazzo di Fuoco in Piazzale Loreto in 1959 with the engineer Giuseppe Chiodi. In the "superimposed villas" building in Corso di Porta Romana he designed his home on the top two floors. The canteen for Pirelli employees at Bicocca in 1956, designed with Chiodi and Valtolina, marks the transition to the modernity of industrial catering. In 1953 he won the competition for the transformation of the central station of Milan and in 1956 for the construction of the Garibaldi station which was then built. In the 40s and 50s he dealt with industrial design, the transport sector for the Breda workshops: from the Settebello of 1949 to the E420 electric trains, the Italian civil aircraft Breda Zappata and was among the interior architects for the Italian ships Andrea Doria, Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci and Africa (from '52 to '59). Of relevance are the projects for the Bathroom Block (1950) and the prefabricated Capanna Minolina. In the following years his work was concentrated especially in private construction, in France in the development of the West Menton Bay and in Sicily in the 70s (Grand Hot Capo Taormina and Condominium) and subsequently, the Portorosa tourist complex, in Furnari, in the Province of Messina, characterized by villas, surrounded by greenery, which overlook the navigable canals of the largest Sicilian tourist port. He died in Milan in 1981.
