Massimo Pica Ciamarra

Massimo Pica Ciamarra (Naples, 9 July 1937) is an Italian architect and theoretician. He has been active since the 1960s, designing over thirty buildings recognised by the Italian Ministry of Culture as "significant for the history of contemporary architecture" in Italy, across nine regions, including, in Naples, the ENEL Twin Towers, the Monte Sant'Angelo Campus of the University of Naples Federico II, and the Piazzale Tecchio in Fuorigrotta. He served as vice-president of the Italian Institute of Architecture from 1997 until 2011, and has been, since 2006, the editor-in-chief of The Carré Bleu. From 1971 until retirement in 2007, he held a professorship in architectural design at the University of Naples Federico II.

Biography

Early years

Pica Ciamarra was born in Naples to an upper-class family, shortly before the beginning of World War II, which would result in widespread devastation in the city. He studied architecture at the University of Naples Federico II, graduating in 1960. Shortly thereafter, between 1961 and 1968, the first building he designed, the Officine Angus in Casavatore, was completed – in 1969, the building won the Italian Institute of Architecture Campania prize. In 1971, he was appointed Professor of Architectural Design at his alma mater, where he stayed until retirement in 2007. The following year he founded his own practice, Pica Ciamarra Associati, which is to this day headquartered in the Casa Bianca in Naples, an old family farmhouse he had entirely remodelled for mostly residential use between 1964 and 1970.

Mid-career to present

Since the early 1970s and until the 2000s, his firm was heavily involved in designing University and Faculty buildings throughout Italy, several of which have since been included in the Italian Ministry of Culture's Census of Italian Architectures from 1945 to today. His first such works were, in 1971, the pharmacy building for the University of Messina, and the following year the Arcavacata campus of the University of Calabria.