Eugenio Soncini

Eugenio Soncini (21 July 1906 – 27 February 1993) was an Italian architect.

Education
Eugenio Soncini graduated in engineering from the then Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore (now  Politecnico di Milano) in 1929. His career and work may be divided into two distinct phases: before and after the Second World War.

The thirties and forties
As a recent graduate he was involved in significant collaborations, first with Emilio Lancia and later with Gio Ponti, who at that time collaborated with Lancia. The latter collaboration was so productive that Ponti decided to abandon Lancia and create a new studio with the young Soncini, as a fully-fledged partner: the Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini Studio. From 1933 to 1947, Soncini worked actively with Ponti on the architectural design and construction of numerous buildings, among the most significant on the Milanese architectural scene at that time, such as the Palazzo Montecatini (1939) and the Clinica Columbus (1938-40). These are the years of his practical and professional growth and maturing, which prompted him towards his own design and creative autonomy.

In 1940 he married Mariele Sessa and had three children.

The fifties and sixties
An exuberant and strong-willed personality, towards the end of the war, Soncini began to find the partnership with Ponti restrictive. So, when in 1947 his brother Ermenegildo graduated in architecture, he took the opportunity to leave Ponti and open an independent studio, the Studio Eugenio and Ermenegildo Soncini in the Palazzina Sessa in via Ariosto 1 in Milano. After World War II, he followed his own interests, concentrating on the office and hospital building sectors. His architectural production mainly concerned the Milanese area, with a significant amount of office buildings, clinics and educational institutions. Among the most significant ones were the Torre Breda (originally known as Grattacielo di Milano), the La Madonnina and Capitanio Clinics, the office buildings of Michelin, Galbani  and Milano Assicurazioni, the Torre Tirrena and the Palazzo La Serenissima/Campari. Besides working with his brother Ermenegildo, he collaborated with Luigi Mattioni, Pier Luigi Nervi and Giuseppe Pestalozza.

Due to this long activity, he was described as an "exponent of Rationalism, in a version that was first classicist and then rigorously technological." The professional activity of Soncini and his studio concluded in 1973.

He died in 1993.

Its archive was donated by the heirs to CASVA (Centro Alti Studi sulle Arti Visive, Milan) in 2017, in order to preserve it and make it freely available to the public.

Works


(as partner in Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini)

1932 Fabbrica Cioccolato Cima, in Via Legnone, Milan

1935 Albergo in Val Martello, Paradiso del Cevedale, Merano

1935 Casa Buffa, in Viale Regina Margherita, Milan

1935 Ville De Bartolomei, in Bratto, Val Presolana

1935 Primo Palazzo Montecatini, in Via Moscova, Milan

1935 Casa, in Via Ceradini, Milan

1935 Case Signorili, in Via G. Modena, Via Cicognare, Via De Togni, Milan

1935 Facoltà di matematica, Rome University

1936 Progetto per Villa Marzotto, a Valdagno, Vicenza

1936 Casa Laporte, in Via Brin, Milan

1936/37 Casa a Torre Rasini, in Corso Venezia, Milan

1937 Casa, in Via Goldoni, Milan

1938 Il Liviano, Padua University, sede del Rettorato

1939 Casa d'Italia, in Wien

1939 Palazzo Ferrania (now FIAT), in Corso Matteotti, Milan

1939 Palazzo Eiar (now RAI), in Corso Sempione, Milan

1939 Palazzo Donini, in Piazza S. Babila, Milan

1939 Progetto per il Palazzo Marzotto, Milan

1940 Clinica Columbus, in Via Buonarroti, Milan

1940 Palazzo per uffici Ledoga-Lepetit, in Via C. Tenca, Milan

1940 Palazzina Salvatelli, in Piazza delle Muse, Rome

1940 Casa, in Via Appiani, Milan

1940 Villa Marmont, Cervignano d’Adda

1940 Progetto per Casa INA, in Via Manin, Milan

1943 Progetto per lo Stabilimento Mondadori, Rho (Milan)

1944 Casa Garzanti, in Via della Spiga, Milano (progettato come Studi Tecnici di Architettura Riuniti: Ponti, Bosisio, Gho, Soncini)

1945 Palazzo e Albergo delle Ferrovie Nord, Milan

(as partner in Studio Eugenio ed Ermenegildo Soncini)

1946 Stadio con tribuna, Lomazzo

1946/47 Palazzo per uffici e magazzini di vendita Michelin, in Corso Sempione, Milan

1946/48 Palazzo del Marchese Casati Stampa di Soncino, in Via Torino, Milan

1946/48 Case signorili, Via De Amicis, Milan

1948/50 Palazzo della S.K.F., in Via Turati, Milan

1948/50 Sede della Società Condor, Rho (Milan)

1949 Hotel du Lac, on Lake Lugano, Porto Ceresio

1949/50 Casa di cura Capitanio, in Via Mercalli, Milan

1950/51 Raffineria di petrolio e prodotti chimici (for Condor), Pantenedo di Rho (Milan)

1952/54 Grattacielo di Milano (now known as Torre Breda), in Piazza della Repubblica, Milan (in collaboration with L. Mattioni)

1953/55 Palazzi per la Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà (RAS), in Via Turati, Milan

1954 Padiglione per la Breda, Sesto S. Giovanni (Milan)

1954/55 Opera Sociale Femminile, in Via Ippocrate, Milan

1954/55 Palazzo Galbani, in Via F. Filzi, Milano (in collaboration with G. Pestalozza e L. Nervi)

1954/55 Palazzetto, in Via Unione, Milan

1954/55 Ospedale di Circolo di Saronno, Varese

1955/56 Albergo Ambrosiano e Opera della Cardinal Ferrari, in Via S. Sofia, Milan

1956/59 Torre Tirrena, in Piazza Liberty, Milan

1956/64 Palazzo per l'Istituto Romano Beni Stabili (I.R.B.S.), in Via Meravigli, Milan

1957/58 Scuole elementari, Rovello Porro, Saronno (Varese)

1957/59 Casa di cura Madonnina, in Via Quadronno, Milan

1958 Hotel del Centro, in Via Broletto, Milan

1958/60 Chiesa, Chak Chumbra, Pakistan

1958/60 Chiesa, Caquetà, Columbia

1958/65 Sede della Compagnia di Assicurazioni di Milano, in Via del Lauro, Milan

1958/65  Ente Opere Sociali Don Bosco, a Sesto S. Giovanni (Milan)

1959 Fabbrica di aeroplani, in Argentina

1959 Design of Scuole convitto Istituto di Assistenza per Minorenni, for Ente Comunale Assistenza (ECA), Milan

1960/62 Casa di abitazione con negozi ed uffici, in Viale Gian Galeazzo, Milan

1960/63 Gruppi di fabbricati in Via Chiusa, Via Disciplini (for I.R.B.S.), Milan

1960/64 Clinica for prof. De Luca, Castelnuovo Daunia (Foggia)

1961/62 Palazzina Crosti, in Via Buonarroti, Milan

1961/63 Palazzo per uffici I.R.B.S., in Via Bordoni, Milan

1961/63 Sede della Società Malinverno, in Via Custodi, Milan

1963 Gruppi di fabbricati residenziali, in Via De Amicis, Milan

1963/64 Palazzo per uffici della Società Cagisa, in Piazza IV Novembre, Milan

1963/65 Serie di case di abitazione, in Via Correggio, Milan

1963/65 Casa di Cura Sant'Anna, Imperia

1963/66 Istituto S. Ambrogio, in Via Melchiorre Gioia, Milan

1965 Clinica privata, in Istanbul

1965 Casa, in Via Roentgen, Milan

1965/66 Serie di case, in Viale Bligny, Via S. Croce, Milan

1966/68 Palazzo per uffici La Serenissima/Campari, in Via Turati,  Milan

1968/70 Serie di case, in Via Gian Galeazzo, Milan

1968/70 Due Palazzi ad uffici (for Lloyd International of Rome), in Corso Europa and Corsia dei Servi, Milan

1969/71 Hotel Principe & Savoia Residence, in Piazza della Repubblica, Milan

1970 Casa, in Corso Vercelli, Milan

1970/71 Seat of La Pace, Insurance Company, in Piazza Cavour, Milan

1970/72 Opera Pro Giovani Operai (Maria Belloni), in Viale Fulvio Testi, Milan

1970/73 Aerhotel, at Porta Garibaldi Railway Station, Milan

1972 Design of Convitto IDAM, for ECA, Milan

1973 Municipio of Rovello Porro, Saronno (Varese)