Biography

Lorenzo "Renzo" Mongiardino (Italian pronunciation: [(lo)ˈrɛntso mondʒarˈdiːno]; 12 May 1916 – 16 January 1998) was an Italian architect, interior designer, and production designer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. In 1936, Renzo Mongiardino moved from Genoa to Milan to study architecture; in 1942, he graduated from the Politecnico di Milano, together with Giò Ponti. Beginning in 1944, Mongiardino collaborated with the design magazine Domus, writing many articles. During this period he also began his multifaceted career, focusing primarily on the creation of residential and theatre environments. In the early fifties, Mongiardino began to establish himself as an architect, working from his home and studio in central Milan, on the elegant Via Bianca Maria.

Mongiardino was responsible for creating some of the most important and enchanting houses of the second half of twentieth century, created for an international and prestigious clientele of cultured collectors and entrepreneurs including Daylesford House in Gloucestershire for Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, and interiors for Aristotle Onassis, Gianni Agnelli and Marella Agnelli, Lee Radziwill and Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, Gianni Versace, Edmond Safra and Lily Safra, Princess Firyal of Jordan, Valentino Garavani, the Rothschild family and the Hearst family. Also starting in the late fifties Mongiardino began his career as “production designer” in Theatre and Cinema together with Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Hall, Giancarlo Menotti and Raymond Rouleau.

In 1993, Rizzoli published “Roomscapes”, a lessons-learned monograph about Mongiardino in which revealed some of his standards of interior design, without forgetting his irreplaceable craftsmen and assistants able to transform his aesthetic dreams into reality; united to his “elective affinity that arrives after years of cooperation and in continuous exercise of affectionate understanding”.

After the arson of theatre "La Fenice" in 1996, Gae Aulenti assigned Mongiardino the project for the interior theatre refurbishment, a project which he was not able to complete.

Mongiardino died in Milan on 16 January 1998.