Mar 30th 2016

Dean's Lecture Series: Vittorio Lampugnani

Vittorio Lampugnani will deliver a lecture as part of the Spring 2016 Dean's Lecture Series on Wed., Mar. 30 at 6:30 p.m. in S. R. Crown Hall.

Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani Vittorio is professor of the History of Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and has his own architectural practice in Milan (Studio di Architettura) as well as a second practice in Zurich (Baukontor Architekten) with two associate partners.

Vittorio was born in Rome where he studied architecture graduating in 1973 from Rome University. He received his doctorate in architecture at Stuttgart University in 1977 and a second doctorate from Rome University in 1983.

He has been a member of the Baden-Württemberg Institute for Architects since 1978, and of the Deutscher Werkbund since 1979. In 1987 he was awarded a prize by the Comité International des Critiques d'Architecture.

Between 1999 and 2002 Vittorio was a member of the Scientific advisory boards of the Triennale di Milano and the Musée d’Architecture Français, Paris. From 2000 through 2004 he was a member of the Scientific advisory board of the Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, and of the Swiss science and technology council in Berne.


Between 2012 and 2014 he was a member of the design advisory board of Munich airport.

He received the 2006 prize of honour of the Union of freelance architects e.V., Munich; and in 2009 and 2011 ETH’s award for special merit in teaching; He also received the 2010 Bruno Zevi Book award of the International Committee of Architectural Critics.

Vittorio has taught at leading institutions around the world.

From 1981 through 1983 he was a research fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies at Columbia University, New York.

In 1984 and 1985 he was visiting professor at the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University;

In 1985 and 1986 he was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin.

Since 1994 Vittorio has been professor for the History of Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he was dean of the faculty from 1998 through 2001, and vice-dean from 2001 through 2003;

In 2008 Vittorio was deputy dean of the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (GTA) where he has been Dean since 2010.

He has had many lecturing and visiting professorships, including at the Harvard University, at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, and at the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico in Milan.

Vittorio has organized and taken part in many important exhibitions at leading institutions. From 1990 through 1995 he was Director of the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt am Main where he organized numerous exhibitions, symposia, conference series. Other exhibitions include: The 1994 exhibition "Rinascimento. Da Brunelleschi a Michelangelo: La rappresentazione dell'architettura" in Palazzo Grassi in Venice (with Henry Millon); in 1995 – 96 the exhibition was shown in the National Gallery, Washington D.C., at the Musée des monuments historiques, Paris, and at the Altes Museum, Berlin.

Vittorio has long been active in architectural publishing. From 1981 through 1985 he was external member of the editorial board of Casabella, Milan. Between 1986 and 90 deputy editor of Domus, Milan and editor there from 1990 through 1995. Between 2000 and 2005 he was member of the editorial committee of “The Harvard Design Magazine”. Since 1995 he has regularly published articles in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Since 1980 Vittorio has had his own architectural practice: first in Berlin, then in Milan and Zurich. Among his most important projects are:

1. office building in Block 109, Berlin (1991-1996), with Marlene Dörrie;

2. housing group in Maria Lankowitz near Graz (1995-1999) with Marlene Dörrie and Michael Regner;

3. urban design planning of Novartis Campus in St. Johann, Basel, (2001 ff);

4. reshaping of the Donau banks, Regensburg (2004 ff), with Wolfgang Weinzierl and others;

5. master plan Richti Quartier, Wallisellen, as well as planning of the open spaces and of a residential block with shops (2007-2014);

These and other projects have been published in the most significant architecture magazines, amongst them Casabella, Domus and Lotus international, Milan, Arquitectura Viva, Madrid, and AMC (Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité), Paris, as well as in expositions (individual and collective), for example the Biennale di Venezia. Member of various jurys for architecture competitions and prizes, among them the Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo (consultant); the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture, Barcelona (chairman) and the Green Prize for Urban Planning, Harvard University.

His most important architectural publications have all been translated into several languages; available in English are: Architecture of the 20th century in drawings, Rizzoli international, New York 1982; Architecture and city planning in the 20th century, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1985; Encyclopaedia of 20th century architecture, Harry N. Abrams, New York 1986; Novartis Campus. A Contemporary Work Environment. Premises, Elements, Perspectives, (Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, 2009); "Stadtbau als Handwerk/Urban Design as Craft", (gta Verlag, 2011).