Michele Valori

Professor and Director of the University Institute for Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture in Rome, he was intensely active professionally and in research, in the fields of architectural design, urban planning and civil engineering, a fact evidenced by the vast number of works he completed and the many studies and research projects that he undertook.

Valori's professional activity included close and fruitful exchanges with many prominent personalities in Rome and Milan; he mainly worked on public commissions, following a university education marked by direct participation in international modern culture and subscription to the Associazione per l'architettura organic – APAO (Association for organic architecture), founded by Bruno Zevi.

Over time, a deep intellectual tension developed around these themes, made explicit in his criticism of the Rome Master Plan, and painfully formulated in Valori's famous article "Fare del proprio peggio" ("Do your worst") published in the journal "Urbanistica" ("Urban Planning") in 1959: "Rome risks finding itself in twenty years' time with the same problems it has today, aggravated by an enormous increase in both construction and population.

Of great interest today is Valori's work in proposing a confrontation with the themes of the post-war architectural debate: in fact, almost a single unique theme played out on countless occasions, often in collaboration with other architects who worked with great efficacy in Italy between 1950 and 1980, in an effort to combine research and attention to emerging issues with an understanding of the profession deeply tied to reality.

They represent a unitary body of great documentary value, which allows a more complex reading of his design activities, and which anticipates today's most topical subjects, such as the restoration of historic centres and environmental issues.