Giovanni Michelucci Foundation

Giovanni Michelucci Foundation

The Giovanni Michelucci Foundation was established in 1982, with the support of the Region of Tuscany and the municipalities of Pistoia and Fiesole, by Giovanni Michelucci (1891 – 1990), one of the leading figures in the history and debate of 20th-century Italian architecture, also known internationally for important projects studied along his long professional career, including the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence (1935), the Chiesa dell’Autostrada in Campi Bisenzio (1964) and the Giardino degli Incontri in the Florentine prison of Sollicciano (1987-2007).

The Foundation is a research center focusing on urban planning and modern and contemporary architecture and on social structures such as hospitals, prisons, and schools.

The Foundation is based at Villa “Il Roseto”, the architect’s home-studio from the late 1950s until his death, a 1930s mansion situated, on a narrow strip of land oriented toward Florence, in a setting of particular historical and scenic value on the slopes of the Fiesole hill. It has a sober and elegant architecture embellished by a garden, which is organized on terraces, and enriched by paved paths bordered by flower beds, fruit trees and olive trees.

The Villa recounts the memory of the Pistoiese architect through the drawings, models and photographs of his architecture, the library, furniture and works of art by his wife and artist friends. In fact, works by Italo Griselli, Quinto Martini, Gualtiero Nativi, Venturino Venturi, and Jorio Vicarelli are present.