Manfredi Nicoletti

He founded and headed at the Rome University La Sapienza the course of Urban Morphology and Ecology in 1972 and later the course of Ecosystemic Architecture in 1995.

Nicoletti is considered a pioneer in Bioclimatic urban and architectural design. In the 1970s his book L'ecosistema urbano (The Urban Ecosystem) - a term which he coined - creates a connection between environmental matters and psychological and cultural values. In this volume experts in various disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, biology, engineering, botanics, urban history, economy and acoustics contribute to open a rich discussion on the theme of urban ecosystems.

Upon his return to Italy, Manfredi worked with Pier Luigi Nervi. As a member of the National Institute for Urban Studies he was one of the founders of the National Institute for Architecture together with Bruno Zevi. In 1962 he returned to MIT with a Sloan Grant and was a member of the Joint Center for Urban Studies. During the years 1963-1964 he travelled through Europe, the Middle East and Asia preparing studies of cave architecture which were later published in the essay of 1980 which won him the Comité International des Critiques d’Architecture prize. In 1963 he was a teacher of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1965 he founded with Paul Maymont, Yona Friedman and Michel Ragon the Groupe International d’Architecture Prospective (GIAP). He is considered to have been a pioneer of Megastructural architecture. He taught in Aquila and Rome; he was full professor of architectural composition in Palermo from 1980 and in Rome from 1988.

His engagement in studies on architecture of Art Nouveau brought him to the rediscovery of the work of the Italian architect Raimondo D'Aronco regarding whom he wrote the first monografy dedicated to his drawings and architecture in 1955 that was followed by a second in 1982.

Born in Rieti, Nicoletti began his artistic and intellectual career very young in the studio of Giacomo Balla. In Rome he studied under Pier Luigi Nervi and graduated in architecture in 1954. The same year he received a Fulbright Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he took his master's degree in 1955. During that time he was a student of Buckminster Fuller, Pietro Belluschi, Eero Saarinen, and Louis Kahn. He worked in the studio of Walter Gropius and was assistant to Sigfried Giedion at Harvard University. Up to 1957 he collaborated with the studio of Minoru Yamasaki.

Manfredi Nicoletti (16 June 1930 – 29 October 2017) was an Italian architect.