Giuseppe Pagano Biography
Giuseppe Pagano (1898 - 1945) was an Italian architect and writer. He graduated in architecture at the Royal Polytechnic of Turin in 1924. He began his professional activity in Turin and in 1928 he was appointed head of the technical office of the International Exhibition of Rome, organized by Group 7. After the exhibition he became secretary for the region Turin of the MAR (Rational Architecture Movement, precursor of the MIAR). He was commissioned (with Gino Levi-Montalcini) by Riccardo Gualino, a Milanese businessman and patron of the arts, to design an office building (completed in 1929) in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the first rationalist building in Milan. Having accepted the direction of Casabella, in 1931 he left Turin and settled in Milan. In the ten years he spent there, Pagano was deeply committed to the defense of modern architecture, committed to underlining its moral implications. With its editorial, and the contributions of Eduardo Persico, Casabella becomes the most representative publication of Rationalism. His commitment led him to be part of numerous competition juries to participate in the development of urban plans, including the Milano Verde project (1938), and also to plan exhibitions and participate in many of the Milan Triennials. Although initially an active member of the Italian Fascist Party, from the mid-1930s Pagano's architectural philosophy took him beyond the official architects of the fascist regime, to the point that at the VI Triennale he proposed an expressive architecture alternative to fascism. In 1942 Pagano left the School of Mysticism and the Fascist Party. In 1943 he came into contact with members of the resistance, being captured in November 1943 and imprisoned, dying in Mauthausen in 1945.
