Persico, Edoardo

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Persico, Edoardo (1900–36). Italian architect and critic. He was invited (1929) by Pagano to work as an editor for Casabella, the architectural journal, which he helped to transform into one of the leading journals of its era. He also published polemics in other magazines, including the influential and widely read Domus. He saw the identification of the Rationalists and Traditionalists with Fascism as potentially dangerous, and he was scathing about certain aspects of the Modern Movement. Modern architecture, he decided, was not a mere engineering solution to an architectural problem (as many Americans thought) nor was its direction to be determined by Le Corbusier's dogmatic approach, nor by Bruno Taut's claims for social concerns. Instead, he perceived it as a means of liberating the human spirit, with no doctrinaire overtones. His best works were probably the two Parker Stores, Milan, both of which he carried out with Marcello Nizzoli (1934–5), and the various displays he designed for important international exhibitions.

Bibliography

Kalman (1980);
Polo (ed.) (1996);
Veronesi (ed.) (1964)

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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Persico, Edoardo

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