BBPR

Biography

Studio BBPR was an architectural and design studio established in Milan in 1932 among four Politecnico di Milano architects: Gian Luigi Banfi (1910, Milan-1945, Gusen-Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria), Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso (1909, Milan-2004, Milan), Enrico Peressutti (1908, Pinzano al Tagliamento-1976, Milan), and Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909, Trieste-1969, Brescia). The first letters of the last names of each made up the acronym by which the BBPR Architects was founded.

Their initial work as BBPR partners followed the themes of Italian rationalism in the 1930s. Even if the architects were not an integral part of the rationalist movement, as they were of a slightly later generation, BBPR became an influential artistic and intellectual entity of Italian rationalism, which had its roots, not unlike fascism, in classical philosophy and embraced the concept of the "ideal" proportions.

BBPR was founded with a shared design intent and with the understanding of a close work integration among its four founders with the idea that "any design made by four people is always better than it would have been if done alone by each person… we will never reveal the individual paternity of an idea. Every idea is always our idea."