Zevi, Bruno

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Zevi, Bruno (1918–2000). Italian architectural theorist. He studied at Harvard University, USA (1939–43), before returning to Italy. His works included Towards an Organic Architecture (1945 and 1955), Architecture as Space: How to Look at Architecture (1948 and 1980), Storia dell' architettura moderna (1950 and 1973), and The Modern Language of Architecture (1973 and 1978). Opposed to International Modernism, Post-Modernism, Classicism, and Neo-Classicism, he advocated a vaguely defined organic architecture (partly influenced by F. L. L. Wright and a return to drawing on natural forms: he stated that architecture can only be called organic when it aims at human happiness, and seems to have advocated a popular idiom that would be contemporary and unindebted to past styles to achieve this. He also contributed major publications on Michelangelo (1964), Mendelsohn (1970), and F. L. Wright (1979).

Bibliography

Wi Curtis (1996);
Zevi (1950, 1960, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1980a, 1985, 1999);
Zevi et al. (1981)