Eugenio Gentili Tedeschi (1916-2005) was an Italian architect, designer, teacher and writer active in Italian building and product design from the 1940s until his death in 2005. Through his popular lectures while professor of design at Milan Politecnico and through his numerous books, he influenced many of the designers and architects working in Italy and abroad today. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation have recognized Gentili for his actions in the Italian Resistance in the Val d'Aosta during World War 2. His architectural legacy in the form of buildings can be seen in Milan and elsewhere in Italy today.
Early years
Eugenio Gentili Tedeschi was born to Jewish parents in Turin in 1916 where he had his early schooling. In 1935 he began university studies in architecture at Politecnico di Torino in its architecture division, completing his undergraduate studies in 1939 and his graduate work 1940. Concurrently, Gentili was also a student of the painter Felice Casorati until 1941. As a student in the late 1930s he formed a close, lasting friendship with the chemist and writer, Primo Levi, who knew him as "Euge" and with whom he shared a love of mountain climbing.
Architect
Gentili's professional formation took place during the period when modern architecture and Rationalism were extremely influential in Italy, strongly promoted by the design magazine, Casabella and the writings of the magazine's editor Giuseppe Pagano and the publisher-art-critic-designer, Edoardo Persico. Persico held the 'Profezia dell'Architettura" conference (The Prophecy of Architecture) in Turin in January 1935, which the 19-year old Gentili attended. The 1930s also saw the rise of Fascism and the Italian Racial Laws promulgated in 1938, which banned Jews from academia, politics, finance, the professional world, and most sectors of public and private life.
In 1941, Gio Ponti, one of Italy's leading designers of the day, in direct defiance of the law, hired Gentili. Gentili worked in Ponti's studio until late 1943, when Gentili, who was active in the anti-fascist underground, was forced to flee Milan for his own safety. [See below.]
In early spring 1945, he moved to Rome, where, with Bruno Zevi, Cino Calcaprina, Saverio Muratori, Silvio Radiconcini, Mario Ridolfi, he co-founded Metron, the first architecture magazine published in Italy after the war. [See below.]
In 1946, he opened his own practice in Milan, Studio Eugenio Gentili Tedeschi. In 1948 he was asked to join the MSA (Movimento di Studi per l'Architettura), the only architect in Italy to belong to both the Associazione per l’architettura organica (APAO) and MSA. He participated in the Milan Triennial in 1947, 1951 and 1954, eventually joining its board, where he remained active for many years.