Giancarlo De Carlo

Who was Giancarlo De Carlo?

Giancarlo De Carlo was an Italian architect.

He was born in Genoa, Liguria, in 1919. He trained as an architect from 1942 to 1949, a time of political turmoil which generated his philosophy toward life and architecture. Libertarian socialism was the underlying force for all of his planning and design.

De Carlo saw architecture as a consensus-based activity. His designs are generated as an expression of the forces that operate in a given context including human, physical, cultural, and, historical forces. His ideas linked CIAM ideals with late twentieth century reality.

De Carlo was a member of Team 10 along with Alison and Peter Smithson, Aldo van Eyck, and Jacob Bakema, among others. Although his political beliefs have limited his portfolio of buildings, his ideas remained untainted by postmodernist beliefs through his journal Spazio e Società - Space & Society, and his teaching at the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design.

De Carlo died in Milan in 2005.