Vittorio Gregotti
Architect who redesigned Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium
VITTORIO GREGOTTI, who has died of Covid-19 aged 92, was a prominent Italian architect, perhaps known most widely for his redevelopment of the Montjuïc Stadium in Barcelona used for the 1992 Olympic Games.
From the late 1950s Gregotti was for a decade or so a leading figure in the intellectual debate about the future direction that architecture should take. These were the days when the discipline was seen almost as a branch of philosophy or politics, and when he was in the vanguard of a younger generation that challenged the tenets of Modernism.
Influenced by the architect Ernesto Rogers, an Italian cousin of Richard Rogers, Gregotti came to give higher regard to the local traditions, context and history of a site than did the Modernist ideology, which sought to apply universal rules and sweep away the past. This had particular implications for Italy, and indeed the Mediterranean, where Gregotti was often working in historic city centres and regions with their own distinct cultures.
The Montjuïc Stadium had originally been built for the Expo in 1929 but had deteriorated by the time Barcelona was awarded the Olympics. Gregotti decided to preserve the high monumental façade while completely renovating the amphitheatre-style grandstands.
The stadium subsequently served for some years as the home of the Espanyol football club. Gregotti had also designed Sampdoria and Genoa’s stadium, the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, with its distinctive towers, for the 1990 World Cup staged in Italy.
In 1993 he completed a vast complex of limestone buildings in Lisbon dedicated to the arts, the Belém Cultural Centre, and the following year undertook restoration work on London’s South Bank Centre. At the turn of the century Gregotti turned a former Pirelli tyre factory in Milan into the Arcimboldi theatre, which stood in for La Scala when the opera house was closed from 2002 until 2004 for renovation.
Vittorio Gregotti was born in Novara, in Piedmont, on August 10 1927. His ancestors had immigrated from Lithuania a century earlier to work as farm labourers but had prospered, and his father owned a textile factory. Vittorio worked there in his holidays from the age of 14, his experience of collective labour leading him to become a Communist.
After graduating from the Liceo Carlo Alberto in Novara he was sent to Paris by his father, a sojourn which transformed his cultural horizons. He mingled with the likes of Sartre and worked as an intern for Auguste Perret, who had taught Le Corbusier.
Gregotti went on to the Politecnico di Milano to study architecture. He then started work with Ernesto Rogers, who also got him to write for the profession’s journal, Casabella. He subsequently became its editor-in-chief (1955-1963).
He also taught at several universities – his students included Renzo Piano – and published more than 30 books. In the late 1960s he began to design buildings for academic institutions in Italy.
After being inspired by his first encounters with the Italian South and Sicily, he set up his own practice in 1974. As an urban planner he worked on the Biocca quarter of Milan and a new town near Shanghai
In the mid-1970s Gregotti curated and greatly expanded the visual arts section of the Venice Biennale, of which he was director in 1978. This led to the establishment of the separate Architecture biennale there in 1980.
Gregotti had a somewhat prickly nature, although he had many friends in London, where he spent every summer for 25 years and where he celebrated his 90th birthday.
He is survived by his wife Marina, who was also taken to hospital suffering from the coronavirus. They did not have children.
Vittorio Gregotti, born August 10 1927, died March 15 2020