ANTONINO SAGGIO, Giuseppe Terragni. Una biografia critica
with the extraordinary participation of PETER EISENMAN
The School of Architecture and Design at New York Tech is pleased to host Professor ANTONINO SAGGIO from Universita’ La
Sapienza in Rome, Italy, and the launch of a completely new edition of the monograph on Giuseppe Terragni (1904-43), his
genial architectures including the renowned “Casa del Fascio”, his cultural formation, intellectual and political
engagement, and the tragic relevance of his latest life.
Professor Saggio‘s lecture will be followed by a conversation with the worldwide recognized architect, educator, and
theorist PETER EISENMAN, who has influenced the international architectural discourse with his extensive theoretical
contributions, and built and critical design work.
Dean and Professor, School of Architecture and Design, New York Institute of Technology
Speaker
Antonino Saggio
Architect and Full Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, “Sapienza” Università di Roma
Antonino Saggio (Rome 1955) is an Architect and Full Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at “Sapienza” Università
di Roma. He has been for several years coordinator of the Ph.D. School in “Theory and Design” and director of the
International book series “The It Revolution In Architecture”’ He has written several books among which one of the most
important ones – ‘Architecture and Modernity: from Bauhaus to the IT Revolution’ – has also been edited in Albanian by
POLIS University.
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Three main guidelines distinguish his work: first, the confidence in the concrete possibility of teaching architectural
design through making its methods evident and transmissible. This approach has been tested with many students and
graduands, with the members of nITro (New Information Technology Research Office), and with many assistants and
collaborators that are currently teaching in foreign institutions such as POLIS University. The second fundamental
aspect of Saggio’s work is the continuous interrelation between the critical historian moment and the design phase.
Particularly, this research path permeated his intense critical activity and led to the birth of books regarding
Giuseppe Terragni (published by Laterza), Giuseppe Pagano (published by Dedalo), Louis Sauer (published by Officina
Edizioni), Peter Eisenman and Frank O. Gehry (published by Testo&Immagine). The third peculiarity of his work concern
the belief of today’s catalyzing role of Information Technology in the definition of a proper ‘IT Revolution in
Architecture.’
This topic has been part of his early teaching years at Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh and has continued at
ETH Zürich and is currently part of his commitment at the Faculty of Architecture at “Sapienza.’ The book series ‘The IT
Revolution In Architecture,’ founded by Saggio in 1998 and also edited in English by Birkhäuser, has been a focal point
for the deepening of this topic and contributed to influence a whole generation of architects that are currently at the
forefront of the international debate. Furthermore, the presence of IT also characterized critical urban projects for
the city of Rome (Urban voids, Urban Green Line, Tevere Cavo, UNLost Territories) that link together the different
historical and landscape peculiarities of the city that urgently needs for the development of new infrastructures within
the urban fabric that can treasure the impact of the new IT possibilities.
Speaker
Peter Eisenman
FAIA, Int FRIBA, Founder and Principal, Eisenman Architects
Peter Eisenman is an internationally recognized architect and educator whose award-winning large-scale housing and urban
design projects, innovative facilities for educational institutions, and series of inventive private houses attest to a
career of excellence in design.
Prior to establishing a full-time architectural practice in 1980, Mr. Eisenman worked as an independent architect,
educator, and theorist. In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), an international
think tank for architecture in New York, and served as its director until 1982.
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Mr. Eisenman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Among other awards, in 2001 he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects, and the Smithsonian Institution’s 2001 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. He was awarded
the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale. Popular Science magazine named Mr.
Eisenman one of the top five innovators of 2006 for the University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals. In May
2010 Mr. Eisenman was honored with the Wolf Foundation Prize in the Arts, awarded in Jerusalem. He received the Gold
Medal for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020.
Currently a visiting professor at the Yale School of Architecture, Mr. Eisenman’s academic career also includes teaching
at Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, and Ohio State universities. Previously he was the Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished
Professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union, in New York City. He is also an author, whose most recent books include:
Written Into the Void: Selected Writings, 1990-2004 (Yale University Press, 2007) and Ten Canonical Buildings, 1950-2000
(Rizzoli, 2008), which examines in depth buildings by ten different architects.
Mr. Eisenman holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, a Master of Science in Architecture degree
from Columbia University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Cambridge University (U.K). He holds honorary Doctorates of
Fine Arts from the University of Illinois, Chicago, the Pratt Institute in New York, and Syracuse University. In 2003,
he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the Università La Sapienza in Rome.
