Franco Purini, born as Francesco Purini (Isola del Liri, 9 November 1941), is an Italian architect, essayist, and university professor. He has designed many buildings, including the Torre Eurosky in Rome.
He studied architecture in Rome with Ludovico Quaroni, earning his degree in 1971. He spent his free time in the company of Franco Libertucci, Achille Perilli, and Lorenzo Taiuti.
After his first work experiences with Maurizio Sacripanti and Vittorio Gregotti, he joined the "Belice 80" workshop. Starting in 1969, he taught mainly at the universities of Florence and Cosenza. After a brief period of teaching in Reggio Calabria and Rome, he became a professor at the IUAV in Venice. Since 2003, he has taught at the Sapienza University of Rome.
For his accomplishments in his field as an architect and theoretician, he was elected Accademico Corrispondente in the Academy of Arts and Drawings of Florence.
Starting in 1966, he established a lifelong collaboration in Rome with his wife, Laura Thermes, with whom he participated in the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale.
In 1980, he was one of the architects called by Paolo Portoghesi to the Venice Biennale to participate in the "Strada Novissima" installation, which became a manifesto of postmodern architecture.
His projects often feature dense patterns of lines and cross-references. His structures echo rationalism and the classical tradition, citing the works of Maurizio Sacripanti and Giovan Battista Piranesi.
Publications Luogo e Progetto [Place and Project], edited by Francesco Moschini, Rome: Magma Editrice, 1976 (reprinted Rome: Kappa / A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, 1981). Pareti. Sette incisioni, text by Francesco Moschini, Rome: Edizioni Romero, 1977. Alcune forme della casa, edited by Francesco Moschini, Rome: Edizioni Kappa / A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, 1979. L'architettura didattica, Reggio Calabria: Casa del Libro / Gangemi Editore, 1980. Sette paesaggi / Seven Landscapes, Milan: Quaderni di Lotus, 1988. Dal Progetto. Scritti teorici di Franco Purini 1966-1991, Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 1992. Una lezione sul disegno, Rome: Gangemi Editore, 1996. Comporre l'architettura [Composing Architecture], Bari: Editori Laterza, 2000. "Belice: la ricostruzione interminabile", in Parametro, no. 251, May-June 2004, pp. 58–61. La città uguale. Scritti scelti sulla città e il progetto urbano dal 1966 al 2004, edited by Margherita Petranzan and Gianfranco Neri, Padua: Il Poligrafo, 2005. La misura italiana dell'architettura, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2008. "The Power of Drawing", interview in STUDIO Architecture and Urbanism magazine, Issue#03 Icon, edited by Romolo Calabrese, Milan, 2012. Discorso sull'architettura. Cinque itinerari nell'arte del costruire, Venice: Marsilio, 2022. AB = 1,618 X BC. La sezione aurea, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2024.
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