While there, one of the major influences on his formative style was his mentor Carlo Scarpa, whose craft approach to architecture refuted the tenets of Rationalist modernism.
Also influential was the school's iconoclastic director, Giuseppe Samoná, who like Scarpa, was an important critic of Rationalism.
Following the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Ricardo Porro invited Gottardi and Garatti to join him in the cause of building a new country.
Gottardi arrived in Cuba in December 1960, and soon began work with Porro and Garatti on the ambitious project of Havana's new National Art Schools, commissioned by Fidel Castro.
He began working with the Cuban National Council of Conservation in 2008 on restoring and finishing the School of Dramatic Arts that had remained incomplete since 1965.