Architect and designer Marco Romanelli dies in Milan at 62

Marco Romanelli, an Italian architect, designer, and critic, died in Milan in 2021 at the age of 62. Born in Trieste in 1958, he studied architecture in Genoa before moving to Milan, where he opened his studio in 1986 after working with Marco Bellini. From 1988 to 2017, he collaborated with Marta Laudani, pursuing a design "of meaning" and engaging in critical reflection on living. Romanelli designed several houses in Milan between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, including Casa Savinelli (1989), Casa Gilli (1990), Casa Marchetti (1990-92), and Casa Cocco-Borges (1993-95). He also curated exhibitions, such as those on Ico Parisi at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and on Gio Ponti at the Design Museum in London. As a critic, he wrote for Domus, Abitare, and Inventario, championing young talents and writing monographs on masters like Gio Ponti, Bruno Munari, Joe Colombo, and Gino Sarfatti. He advocated for a "silent" architecture, stating that silence in architecture and design is an antidote to wear and that noisy objects become waste while silent ones endure. In 2004, Laudani and Romanelli participated in the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2010, their work on plate design was exhibited at the Triennale in "Modificazioni impercettibili in una tipologia immodificabile." In 2011, they won a collective Compasso d'Oro for the exhibition "Domo" at the Biennale dell'Artigianato sardo.