Ludovico Quaroni: The Pragmatic Traditionalist Architect

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi profiles Italian architect Ludovico Quaroni, highlighting his paradoxical legacy. In March 1964, historian Manfredo Tafuri published a monograph on Quaroni, which helped Tafuri win a teaching assistant position under Quaroni, sparking controversy. Quaroni, born in 1911, was a key figure in Italian architecture, known for his experimentalism and moral approach. He led the design of the Tiburtino neighborhood in Rome with Mario Ridolfi, a neo-realist project blending modern architecture with vernacular languages. He also worked on the La Martella village in Matera. In the 1960s, he shifted to large-scale urban projects like the Barene di San Giuliano. Later, he embraced postmodernism, notably in the 1983 expansion of the Rome Opera House. Quaroni authored influential books, including "La Torre di Babele" (1967) and "Progettare un edificio" (1977). He taught at the University of Rome, where he was acclaimed by student movements alongside Bruno Zevi and Luigi Piccinato. His legacy is complex: a destroyer rather than a builder, he fostered divergent contributions among his students, such as Antonino Terranova and Massimiliano Fuksas. Quaroni died in 2000.