Renowned Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi died on Tuesday at his home in Calcata north of Rome aged 92.
Born in the Italian capital, Portoghesi enjoyed an eclectic career spanning many decades, and which saw him become one of the leading exponents of postmodernism in Italy.
His works in Rome include the Casa Baldi, the mosque and Islamic cultural centre (1995) - the largest place of Islamic worship in the Western world and probably Portoghesi’s best-known work - and the Casa Papanice residential building.
Elsewhere in Italy, he put his signature to the Church of the Holy Family in Salerno, Enel housing complexes in Tarquinia, the Academy of Fine Arts in L'Aquila, and the theater in Catanzaro, as well as overseeing restoration of Piazza della Scala in Milan.
Works abroad include residences (Berlin), gardens (Montpellier), hotels, fast food restaurants (Moscow), and the Strasbourg mosque.
''If I had to choose three projects that represent me, I would point to the church of the Holy Family in Salerno, the small church of St. Cornelius and Cyprian in Calcata and the mosque in Rome,'' Portoghesi told ANSA in an interview several years ago.
"But not just these, because projects are all a bit like children, every now and then I go and visit them,'' he added.
Portoghesi's most recent completed project is the so-called co-cathedral in Lamezia Terme (2016), a work that appears to be the culmination of his reflections on the sacred, with the soaring steel bell towers that recall Gaudi's Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona and the façade that almost seems to embrace the faithful, inviting them in.
Portoghesi also served in a number of institutional positions, including as director of the Venice architecture biennale in 1979, president of the Venice architecture biennale (1983-1993) and professor of architecture at Rome Sapienza university, where he held a course in geoarchitecture.
President of the professional association of architects of Rome Alessandro Panci described his death as "a great sorrow (and) a great loss for architecture and the world of culture", adding that Portoghesi was "a friend, a Master and an intellectual who helped defend beauty, always".
"Today is a day of mourning for Italian architecture," said Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.
"The death of Paolo Portoghesi deprives us of an influential figure the field of both design and theory. He nurtured a global concept of architecture, in which man and the forms of the built and inhabited had to be in harmony," said Sangiuliano.
"Paolo Portoghesi was an extraordinary world-renowned architect, an intellectual whose quality of work and thought contributed to enriching the history of architecture. Rome, his city, will always remember him with gratitude. Condolences to his family and loved ones, said Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri on social media.
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