Dante O. Benini

Dante Oscar Benini (1947–) is a leading contemporary Italian architect with a cosmopolitan outlook and a strong international presence. Born in Milan, he traveled extensively in his youth and had the opportunity to work alongside some of the great masters of twentieth-century architecture. He first joined the studio of Carlo Scarpa in Venice, then in the late 1970s collaborated with Frank Gehry in Santa Monica, California, and earned his degree in architecture at the University of Rio de Janeiro under Oscar Niemeyer. During the 1980s he was active in Austria at the University of Innsbruck, while in 1990 he returned to the United States, this time working with the prominent postmodern architect Richard Meier, with whom he collaborated on the renovation of the historic Ponte Cittadella in Alessandria. The 1990s also saw the realization of his first independent projects, including several buildings within the Farmitalia Science Park in Nerviano. In 1997, at the age of fifty, he founded his own practice, Dante O. Benini & Partners Architects, in collaboration with architect Luca Gonzo (1969–), who became the firm’s managing partner. A non-dogmatic figure guided by a pragmatic approach, Dante O. Benini gained the support of the influential architecture critic Bruno Zevi, who dedicated several laudatory articles to his work and played a decisive role in launching his career. Accustomed to working with major multinational corporations, Benini’s projects often take the form of large industrial complexes—such as the production facility for the pharmaceutical group Abdi Ibrahim in Turkey (2014) or striking high-rise buildings, as in the case of the Pavshino Living Art Towers in Moscow (2012). In the field of product design, a more secondary aspect of his practice, he has collaborated with brands such as Fiam Italia, Giorgetti, Listone Giordano, Antrax, and previously Meritalia and MisuraEmme.