Giovanni Leoni (b. 1958)
1984 Ma, IUAV, Venice, Italy
1988 PhD in History of Architecture, IUAV, Venice, Italy
1996-99 Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
1999-2002 Associate Professor, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
2002-05 Full Professor, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
2006-present Full Professor, chair in History of Architecture, Università di Bologna, Italy
2006-12 Vice-Dean and Coordinator of Master in Architecture, Facoltà di Architettura “Aldo Rossi”, Università di Bologna
2011-12 Member (Engineering and Architecture Area), Research Evaluation Board, Università di Bologna
2012-15 Director, Department of Architecture, Università di Bologna
2016-2018 Coordinator, PhD Program in Architecture, Università di Bologna
2018-2021 Member, Board of Governors, Università di Bologna
He has researched on 16th century architecture in Ferrara (Christ the Gardener and the chain of symbols: the gardens around the walls of sixteenth-century Ferrara, J. D. Hunt, ed., The Italian Garden, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996; Ferrara: una capitale in declino in L'architettura del secondo Cinquecento in Italia, a cura di C. Conforti e R. Tuttle, Milano: Electa Mondadori 2001; La fortuna critica di G. B. Aleotti, in: C. Cavicchi, F. Ceccarelli, R. Torlontano, Giovan Battista Aleotti e l'architettura, Reggio Emilia: Diabasis 2003).
He works on art and architecture theory in 19th century, particularly on John Ruskin (J. Ruskin, Opere, a cura di G. Leoni, Roma-Bari: Laterza 1987; J. Ruskin, Turner e i Preraffaelliti, a cura di G. Leoni, Torino: Einaudi 1992; J. Ruskin, Pittori moderni, 2 voll., traduzione e cura di G. Leoni, Torino: Einaudi 1998; Architecture as Commentary: Ruskin's Pre-Modern Architectural Thought and its Influence on Modern Architecture in: AA.VV., Ruskin and Modernism, G. Cianci, P. Nicholls, ed., Basingstoke-New York: Palgrave, Houndmills 2001; Il comandamento scritto nelle cose. Sul problema del restauro in John Ruskin / The Commandment Written within Things. John Ruskin and the Issue of Restoration, in J. Ruskin, Il riposo di S. Marco / St. Mark's Rest, M. Pretelli, a cura / ed., S. Arcangelo di Romagna: Collana Politecnica Politecnico di Milano - Maggioli Editore 2010). He is working on a book about the figures of architectural creativity in John Ruskin’s writings (Models of Artistic and Architectural Creativity in the Works of John Ruskin, «ARCHISTOR», 2018, 10, pp. 92-127; Visionary, prophet, preacher: The relationship between figuration and narration in the models of artistic and architectural creativity described by John Ruskin in A. Borsari, M. Cassani Simonetti, G. Iacoli, ARCHILETTURE. Forma e narrazione tra architettura e letteratura, Mimesis: Milano 2019).
He works on contemporary architecture, especially on Italian and Portuguese Post-War Architecture.
He is the chief editor of the academic international OA journal Histories of Postwar Architecture (hpa.unibo.it).
Main publications on Portuguese Post-War Architecture: Eduardo Souto Moura(with A. Esposito, Milano: Electa Mondadori 2003; Spanish and Portuguese ed. Barcelona: Gili, 2003; English ed. London: Phaidon 2004; 2006; Italian extended ed. Milano: Electa Mondadori 2012; English extended ed. London: Phaidon, 2013); Fernando Távora. Opera completa (with A. Esposito, Milano: Electa Mondadori 2005); Cosmopolitism vs Internationalism in Contemporary Portuguese Architecture: Távora, Siza and Souto Moura in F. Bethencourt ed., Cosmopolitanism in the Portuguese-Speaking Countries, Leiden: Brill 2017; Siza prima di Siza - Siza ante do Siza, “CASABELLA”, 2019, 896; (not) Being Eduardo Souto Moura in: F. Dal Co, N. Graça Moura ed. Souto de Moura. Memory, Projects, Works, New Haven,CT: Yale University Press – Casa da Arquitectura 2019 (Portuguese ed. Porto: Casa da Arquitectura 2019; Italian ed. Milano: Electa 2020). In progress: Italian edition of Fernando Távora’s Diary (1960) with A. Esposito, R. Maddaluno (supported by FundaçãoGulbenkian, Lisbon and Fundação Marques da Silva, Porto), Siracusa: LetteraVentidue 2019.
From 2002 to 2009 he has been chief editor of the Italian/English review “d'Architettura” (Motta Architettura, Gruppo Sole 24 Ore), a journal specifically devoted to Italian architecture, current and of the 20th century. As part of this commitment he was curator of many exhibitions (I linguaggi alti della architettura italiana / I linguaggi altri della architettura italiana, with A. Trentin, Festival dell’Architettura, Parma, S. Ludovico, Oct. 23-29, 2006; Laboratorio Italia, Roma, Ex Casa di Correzione del San Michele, Sala Clementina, May-Jun. 2006), conferences and other publications.
He has directed cataloguing campaigns on Italian modern and contemporary architectonic heritage, particularly in Emilia Romagna, (Teatro Storchi, Modena: Mucchi 1990; Trentacinque progetti per Fossoli, Milano: Electa Mondadori 1990; "The first blow": Projects for the Camp at Fossoli, G. Hartman, ed., Holocaust Remembrance. The Shapes of Memory, Cambridge: Blackwell 1993; La casa popolare. Storia istituzionale e storia quotidiana dello IACP di Modena. 1907-1997, Milano: Electa Mondadori 1998, con S. Maffei; Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, in M. Casciato, P. Orlandi, Quale e quanta architettura in Emilia-Romagna nel Secondo Novecento, Bologna: CLUEB 2005, in collaboration with Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism; Secondo Novecento a Reggio Emilia, in A. Zamboni, C. Gandolfi, L’architettura del Novecento a Reggio Emilia, Milano: Bruno Mondadori 2011; Il campo della cultura a Modena: storia, luoghi e sfera pubblica, Milano: Mimesis 2011, cura, con A. Borsari, V. Borghi; Il Novecento a Modena. Le qualità dell’architettura e i processi di costruzione della città, in V. Bulgarelli, C. Mazzeri, a cura, Città e architetture. Il Novecento a Modena, Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini Editore 2013; Storia e identità dei luoghi di lavoro nella Modena del Novecento in V. Bulgarelli, C. Mazzeri, a cura, Architetture del lavoro nella Modena del Novecento, Modena: Panini 2015).
He is now working on a research about the themes of discontinuity in Italian Post-War architectonic culture (In memoria dell’altra resistenza: il Museo-Monumento dei BBPR a Carpi in AA.VV., Il Muso-Monumento del Deportato politico e razziale a Carpi, Bologna: BUP 2016; L’Anonimo come tema di discontinuità nella cultura architettonica italiana tra Primo e Secondo Novecento in Un palazzo in forma di parole. Scritti in onore di Paolo Carpeggiani, C. Togliani, a cura, Milano: Franco Angeli 2016; Anonymous as a theme of discontinuity in the culture of Italian architecture between the first and second halves of the 20th century: E.N. Rogers and L. Ricci, in Utopia(s) - Worlds and Frontiers of the Imaginary, Maria do Rosario Monteiro, Mario S. Ming Kong, ed., Leiden: CRC Press Balkema Taylor and Francis 2017;Cosmopolitismo vs internazionalismo: la questione dello “stile” agli esordi di Gabetti e Isola in G. Canella, P. Mellano, Roberto Gabetti 1925-2000, Milano: Franco Angeli 2017).
He has worked on divulging and educational publishing about modern and contemporary architecture.
Between 2007 and 2010 he conceived and curated MINIMUM Essential Architecture Library (first two series, Motta Architettura, Gruppo Sole 24 Ore). The Italian version of the series was published, as well as in library, in attachment to the popular magazine “L’Espresso”. The series has been translated in English (Motta), Portuguese (Folha de São Paulo, 2011), French (GRANDS ARCHITECTES, Actes Sud), Chinese (Dalian University of Technology Press). Books as the author in the series: Mies van der Rohe (Italian, French, Portuguese); David Chipperfield (Italian, Portuguese, Chinese); Norman Foster(Italian, French, Portuguese, Chinese) Àlvaro Siza (Italian, English, Portuguese). Between 2007 and 2010 he conceived and curated CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE, essential monographs on a geographical basis (Motta Architettura, Gruppo Sole 24 Ore, French version by ACTES SUD, Italian version in attachment to the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, 2011).
He is founding member of AISTARCH Italian Society of Architectural Historians and member of the scientific committee of “Ricerche di Storia dell’Architettura”, Journal of the Society.
Director, with Andrea Borsari, of the séminaire: Habiter le temps: dialogues d’architecture et philosophie al Collège International de Philosophie (Parigi, 2016).
Member of the Scientific Committee of the network Mapping Architectural Criticism (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Francia, partner Université Rennes 2; Archives de la critique d’art, Rennes; Bartlett School; ETH Zurigo; Columbia University; Musée d’Orsay).
Member of the National Committee to celebrate Leonardo Ricci’s centenary (funded by MIBACT).
Member of the National Committee to celebrate Leonardo Ricci’s centenary (Accademia di San Luca, Roma; GDC100)
He works as a referee for academic institutions and editorial board (SEPS for European Culture; Fundação do Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia de Portugal FCT, adviser Triennale’s Gold Medal, Zevi Foundation).
He has directed PhD thesis co-tutoring with École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris; École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) Paris; Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona; Faculdade de Arquitectura, Porto.
Member of the Scientific Committee of Urban Centre Bologna (2012-18, as representative of Università di Bologna).
Member of the Scientific Committee of Urban Centre Parma (since 2008).
Member of the Scientific Committee in Public Debate for the New Highway Bypass of Bologna (2016, Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport)
Member of Advisory Board of Bologna Strategic Metropolitan Plan (2017-, Bologna Metropolitan City – University of Bologna)
Coordinator (Università di Bologna section) of H2020 project ROCK Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities(Horizon 2020 SC5-21 Cultural Heritage as a driver for sustainable growth, https://rockproject.eu [https://rockproject.eu/] ).
Participant in others H2020 funded projects (RURITAGE Rural regeneration through systemic heritage-led strategies - H2020 SC5-21 Cultural Heritage as a driver for sustainable growth; SPEME Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017).
Editor-in-chief, with Carola Hein (TU Delft), of the European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes (cpcl.unibo.it).
