Background
Graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan in 1986. From 1986 to 1987 he resides in the city of Porto (Portugal) for a period of study and vocational training, working in the offices of Alcino Soutinho and Alvaro Siza and getting hold of the Portuguese design culture. This experience influenced him in depth and he maintained with the Portugal, cultural trade and cooperation.
Work experience
He worked in Milan at the offices of Umberto Riva and Mario Bellini, participating in the elaboration of many important projects. In 1992 he moved in the place of origin (Monopoli, Apulia), and began to play his own professional work in and with others for public and private clients.
In 2008 he and Elena Bruschi won the international competition for the Bicentenary Square in Mexico City, getting besides the charge for build it.
Some of his works were published in magazines and collections of national distribution and international and participated in several exhibitions of architecture. The house in Caramanna (1998-2007) appears in the exhibition Equivivere. Per un'architettura sostenibile held in Palazzo Pretorio in Cittadella (Pd) in 2010 and in the pertinent catalogue published from Poligrafo, Padova. The De Nigris house has been shown in several exhibitions in 2005 and appears in various publications: AA.VV., Architetti interpretano la casa d'abitazione italiana. Opere realizzate. Biblos Edizioni; d'Architettura n.26, Federico Motta Editore; Almanacco di Casabella – Giovani architetti italiani 2004-05, Elemond; Ville, a cura di G.Fini, Motta Architetture. The Bicentenary Square in Mexico City has been published in Piso n.26, Guadalajara, Messico and in several website of architecture.
Other recent projects and works: international competition Bari Costa Sud for the urban regeneration of the areas along the south coast of Bari (2018), second prize; international competition Baricentrale to refurbish the railway areas in Bari in the team leadered from Guillermo V.Consuegra (2013), second prize; House in Rosamarina (2009-11) with Moramarco+Ventrella; international Competition for a reception and facilities building annex to the museum Villa della Regina in Turin (2010) with A.Perego, F.M.De Felice and others; international competition for two multistorey buildings of Benetton in Teheran (2009) with G.Mainini, E.Bruschi and others; row-houses in Monopoli (2007-08) with P.Esposito; Todisco house (2007-11); extension and external arrangement of villa Schena (2005-11); Project of the Italian pavilion in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India (2006); Contento house in Monopoli (2005-06); competition for Piazza della Libertà in Cesena (2003) with S.Ventrella, G.Armenise, S.Pugliese, second prize ex-aequo.
Scientific activities
He has done research and studies on the cities and on the situation of contemporary architecture and has published several writings and essays. In the last decade, he has focused his research and teaching activities on the potential of urban landscape reform and on the redevelopment of public space in Italy, in the urban areas of expansion after World War II.
In the years 2000-05 he published for several magazines and collections, articles and essays on contemporary Portuguese architecture, often with Giovanni Leoni, with whom he published also two important monographs on two of the major Portuguese architects, Eduardo Souto Moura (Electa, Milano 2003; spanish and Portuguese editions Gili, Barcellona 2003; English edition Phaidon, Londra 2004; 2006; new italian edition, Electa, 2012; new english edition, Phaidon, 2012); Fernando Távora (Electa, Milano 2005).
In 2007 he published a monograph on Tadao Ando for Motta Architettura editions, series Minimum, followed by several foreign editions.
Other main publications:
- Diario, with E.Bruschi; d'Architettura n.26 – 2005
- Recingere e coprire: alcune case di Mies van der Rohe, in AA.VV. Le case dei Maestri. Mario Adda editore
- José Paulo dos Santos /José Fernando Gonçalves. Architetture. With F.S.Fera, Clueb 2012
- Conservazione, riuso, sostenibilità e condizione contemporanea, in AA.VV., Progetto STAVECO. Compositori, 2014
- Per una riforma dei paesaggi urbani in Italia, in F.Moschini, Gallipoli. Laboratorio di progettazione, Gangemi editore, 2016
- Francisco Barata. Continuare innovando, with A.Ugolini, La Greca 2017
- La Forma y la Técnica: ornamento y pureza, TC cuadernos n.133, 2018
He delivered conferences about his work and several items of modern and contemporary architecture. Recently he was in Monterrey (N.L., Mexico), invited from the ITESM Càtedra Luis Barragàn, to deliver two conferences about Eduardo Souto de Moura and the contemporary Portuguese architecture.
Since 2017 he is a member of the scientific committee of the series ART_Arquitectural Rsearch Tribune, General de Ediciones de Arquitectura, Valencia.
Teaching activities and academic career
Since 1996 until 2010, has taught as adjunct professor of different matters of architectural project at the Faculties of Architecture in Bari (1996-2002), Milan Bovisa (2002-07) and Cesena (2009-10) and Faculties of Engineering of Basilicata in Matera (2005-07) and Naples (2007-08). Since 2011 he is permanent researcher in Architectural and urban design (Icar 14) at the Faculty of Architecture “Aldo Rossi”, after Master’s Degree in Architecture of the University Alma Mater Studiorum of Bologna, branch of Cesena. In 2017 he obtained the National Scientific Qualification for first level teaching.
