Episode 127: Elena Luzzatto
Elena Luzzatto Valentini was born on October 30, 1900, in Ancona, Italy, to a Jewish railway engineer and a Catholic mother—an unconventional pairing for the time. Her parents believed strongly in education, especially for women, and this support, along with financial help from wealthier relatives, enabled Elena to pursue architecture. At 21, she moved to Rome and enrolled in the Regia Scuola Superiore di Architettura, Italy’s first architecture school. In 1925, she became the first woman in Italy to graduate with a degree in architecture, with a thesis on a sanatorium.
She began her career at the Technical Office for the Municipality of Rome, contributing to public projects such as housing, markets, train stations, cemeteries, schools, and restoration work. Despite Mussolini's 1934 ban on women in public institutions, Elena continued working, having already been established in her role. For two decades, she remained a level two architect before finally being promoted in her final six years of public service.
Elena collaborated with engineer Maria Bortolotti Casoni on several design competitions, winning third place for both a seaside villa in Lido di Ostia and a government building in Pesaro.
Throughout the fascist period, she remained active, designing villas and public buildings in the rationalist style, even as a Jewish woman in a politically hostile climate. Among her most significant works were two cemeteries: the vast Cimitero Flaminio, which she master-planned with zones for different religions, and a French military cemetery symbolizing unity among soldiers of diverse faiths. She also designed the Mercato Primavalle, once home to over 50 stalls, later revitalized by urban activist groups. Elena remained active in architecture until age 77, designing over 40 buildings and winning numerous competitions.
Caryatid: Elisa Maceratini
Elisa Maceratini is the president and co-founder of Interazioni Urbane, an Italian NGO composed of architects, facilitators, and social innovators committed to urban renewal, social inclusion, and participatory planning in under-resourced areas.
An architect and urban planner with a PhD in Urban Renewal from the University of Sapienza in Rome, Elisa specializes in slum upgrading, regional planning, and community-driven design. She has worked in around 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America as an international consultant for a range of agencies and governments.
Widely respected for leading projects and educational initiatives on sustainable urban strategies, Elisa was honored in 2015 by then-President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, for her outstanding contributions to Italian society, especially in the social and professional advancement of women.
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This transcript was prepared during the development of the episode.
Final recorded episode may deviate slightly from the content presented below as changes, edits, or improvements may be made during the recording and editing process.
Norgerie: Hi! Welcome to season 12 of She Builds Podcast, where we share stories about women in the design and construction field, one lady at a time.
Jessica: This season's theme is: “Government, Civic Work, and Urban Planning” . We are talking about ladies who were involved in public projects or services.
Lizi: As always, we are not experts, we are just sharing stories about the information that we find, as friends having a fun conversation. If you find an error, send us an email and we will all continue learning.
Norgerie: Get ready to learn about Elena Luzatto Valentini who worked at the Technical Office for the Municipality of Rome. I’m Norgerie Rivas, thinking of dinner, in Houston Texas.
Jessica: Hi, I’m Jessica Rogers digesting my dinner , in Miami, FL
Lizi: Hi, I’m Lizi Raar, also thinking of dinner in San Francisco.
Norgerie: Oggi posso provare un po’ il mio Italiano perche andiamo in Italia.
Lizi: Weeoooo! Molto bene. Il mio italiano è molto arrugginito, ma sono emozionato. Andiamo!
Jessica: okay my italian is rusty - but we going to Italy ya’ll! And we are excited because once upon a time in college, we all did a semester abroad in Florence and our Italian was great or well MY italian was understandable but now I just know phrases. ALLORA ANDIAMO IN ITALIA
Norgerie: Va bene. The time was October 30, 1900, the place Ancona, Italy
Lizi: OOO ok, so to get our Italian geography going, Ancona is a coastal city on the eastern side of Italy, so it’s on the Adriatic Sea across from Croatia. I’d call it mid-calf on the boot. Directly east of Florence, southeast of Venice, and northeast of Rome. The landscape there is also very hilly whereas the coast north of Ancona as you head up to Venice is pretty flat.
Jessica: Which makes it a great route for travelers making passenger traffic their main economic driver for that region
Norgerie: yes, you’ve set the stage. Her parents were Vittorio Valentini and Annarella "Cloe" Luzzatto Gabrielli. Vittorio was a railway engineer and he was Jewish. Annarella was Catholic. This was super unusual for the time, for a Jew and a Catholic to marry, but it was not illegal, thankfully, people should be free to love whoever they choose.
Lizi: Very interesting. I agree, if it was right for them then more power to them! Hopefully it didn’t bring them strife from outsiders or family since like you said it was unusual for the time and might have been hard for them.
Jessica: Yes, I wonder how the holidays were for them?
Norgerie: I do wonder how much it played in her upbringing being brought up in an unconventional household. And her family was not only unconventional for marrying outside of their heritage or faith, it was also a household that believed in women’s education.
Lizi: YESSS.
Jessica: I’m so loving this right now
Norgerie: Yeah Vittorio was also ahead of his time in this regard, he encouraged his daughter to seek an education. In his opinion the more school she had, the better opportunities she would have.
Lizi: Diglielo Vittorio!
Jessica: That’s right papa Vittorio!
Norgerie: Vittorio, Annarella, and Elena were a middle class family. Yet, apparently Vittorio had wealthy relatives that also supported Elena’s education and paid for her schooling.
Lizi: Ok, that’s nice that they were able to use that for her schooling.
Jessica: Yeah it’s great that they were so supportive - it’s giving gilmore vibes but still love it
Norgerie: At the age of 21 she moved 170 mi southwest of Ancona and arrived in Rome. She enrolled in the Regia Scuola Superiore di Architettura, the Royal Superior School of Architecture. That name made me think that there were a bunch of architecture schools and this one declared itself the most important, but it turns out that this was the first school of architecture in all of Italy.
Lizi: hahaha I love your guess. But amazing. It sounds like it was a school with a lot of prestige and history.
Jessica: Not only is it Royal but it’s superior hahaha
Norgerie: Elena became the first woman to graduate from an architecture program in Italy when she received her diploma in 1925. Her thesis was a sanatorium.
Lizi: Go Elena! Congratulazioni!
Jessica: Yayyy! For whatever reason whenever I think of Sanatoriums I think of the Aaltos because they did a few of them - sounds cool
Norgerie: After graduation, she began working with the Governatorato di Roma, the Technical Office for the Municipality of Rome. This was the government department responsible for design and construction of public structures. She worked on designing, public housing, cemeteries, schools, markets, train stations, colonial rural buildings in Somalia, churches, hospitals, sanatoriums, and restoring monuments.
Lizi: Wow. That’s a wide variety of project types. And cool to be doing some work in Africa as well.
Jessica: Yeah, Sounds like a great opportunity to learn about different project types
Norgerie: I feel like I should have shouted spoiler alert. I basically told you everything she worked on during her whole career.
Lizi: hahaha oh wow. Giving it all away early I see.
Jessica: yeah - way to give it way
Norgerie: Maybe we should end the episode here. THE END
Lizi: There’s no way.
Norgerie: Just kidding! Something I found interesting is that she started working in the Roman Government in 1926 and then a few years later in 1934 Mussolini prevented women from working in public institutions. So Elena was sorta grandfathered in. And she was the only woman that was listed as a “full” architect not just an architect assistant. But she remained a level 2 architect for 20 years, it was only in her last 6 years of her public career that she received the title of first level architect.
Jessica: I was going to say - we know that she worked on stuff but life was still life-ing.
Lizi: That’s super interesting. So wait, when Mussolini came to power she was allowed to keep her job even though women weren’t allowed to work in government? I mean I guess I’m glad that she was able to stay in her job through all of that and was high enough up. But sad that she wasn’t able to move up for 20 years. Also, she is Jewish right? How did that affect things?
Norgerie: Let’s discuss something much happier, in 1927 something that I was not expecting happened. Don’t be scared, it's gonna be a nice surprise. Are you ready?
Jessica: Yes, please
Lizi: Ready.
Norgerie: In 1927, her mother, Annarella , graduated from architecture school, and not just any architecture school, Elena’s alma mater, the Regia Scuola Superiore di Architettura. And just like that Elena’s mother became an architect.
Lizi: WOAH! That’s so cool! Mother/daughter duo!
Jessica: oooh that is so cool!
Norgerie: In 1928, she designed the project for a chalet in the seaside neighborhood of Rome, Lido di Ostia for the fascist leader Giuseppe Bottai. I’m not gonna get into who this guy was cause I don’t wanna, but I found it curious that a fascist leader hired the daughter of a Jewish man to design his home. And I don’t know why, but I could swear we discussed a similar situation before, but I cannot remember when or which lady, can you?
Lizi: I cannot. But I am also so curious about how she’s working for the fascists with her background.
Jessica: Yeah I want to say it was one of our previous Italian ladies maybe? I remember we commented on the irony of it all and we wondered what the vibe would be working in an environment like that.
Norgerie: During this time, cause you know our ladies cannot do just one job they gotta have at least three, she was also working as assistant to professor Vincenzo Fasolo at the Regia Scuola Superiore di Architettura.
Jessica: you know, we gotta thank streaming platforms. If they existed back WHO KNOWS what are ladies wouldn’t accomplish hahaha
Lizi: Of course. Teaching at her alma mater. Did she teach her mom?!?
Norgerie: I dont know, good question. Something else I thought about, I know we joke all the time that our ladies like to have 5 jobs at a time, but now I’m starting to wonder if this is what they had to do to make ends meet. I’ve 0 evidence to support this, just a thought.
Lizi: That is an interesting point. I would think for some of them that might be why.
Jessica: that could be true and in this case maybe it was - I can imagine Elena not getting paid fairly or enough for several reasons and the country is going through what it’s going through. So she needed the teaching gig for additional income.
Norgerie: Let’s go back to Lido di Ostia cause I’m living winter in Houston and I would rather be at the beach. Elena joined forces with the engineer Maria Bortolotti Casoni. They worked together on the design entry of a competition for villas in the town of Lido di Ostia in Rome.
Lizi: MARIA!! Ok I love the connection to our episode 74 lady! For those who don’t remember, Maria was the first woman to become a licensed engineer in Italy.
Jessica: ooh maybe it was during her story that we mentioned her interactions with Guiseppe? And now it vaguely sounds familiar that we might have mentioned Elena… future episode alert then NOW is the present … we are living in the future y’all
Norgerie: Yes, while I was researching Maria's story I stumbled upon Elena and I’ve been wanting to do an episode all about her since 30 episodes ago.
Jessica: the future is now my friend
Lizi: So fun! Glad you’re getting to finally do it.
Norgerie: Unfortunately Maria and Elena’s project was never built, they won third place. And they also won third place on the competition for the Palazzo dell'Economia Corporativa di Pesaro, a government building in Pesaro, Italy
Lizi: So sad that it was never built, but love that they kept going with competitions.
Jessica: yes, I’m loving this continued collaboration
Norgerie: All these competitions and prizes were getting her a lot of great attention. She was even considered to be one of the leading exponents of Italian rationalist architecture.
Jessica: ooh impressive! Okay and as refresher italian rationalism was a response to historicism - there was a rational in thinking like geometric form and ideal proportions - an example that always comes to mind is casa del fascio in como
Norgerie: I like Italian rationalist architecture. One of my favorite works in school was Casa del Fascio. Did we see that when we went to Italy, I think we did and that I really enjoyed it.
Lizi: Yeah we did go see it on our trip to Como. It is a really cool building. I also loved visiting that one.
Jessica: agreed! That was a nice bucket list building to see. And it was a nice reprieve from seeing all of the renaissance and baroque buildings that we had seen while we were there.
Norgerie: I looked up images of Elena's work and I could see that rationalist style. I gotta say I'm really into it. And I'm not the only one. Elena was getting good press. She had her work published in 1935 in the magazine Almanacco della donna italiana, Almanac of the Italian Woman. The writer Anna Maria Speckel wrote an article for the magazine called "Architettura moderna e donne architette," Modern Architecture and Italian Women. In it she said and I quote: "Her artistic expression, achieved through both ordinary and monumental buildings, has managed to approach that simplicity of lines that allows her today to confidently and fully maturely engage with the most effective rationalism.”
Jessica:yaayy brava elena!
Norgerie: During the Italian fascist period, she designed villas by herself or in partnership with other architects.
Lizi: Still fascinated that she’s able to work, but I’m glad she was able to .
Jessica: Agreed - that’s awesome
Norgerie: In 1934 she left teaching. More time for her other jobs. A year later she designed the covered market in Piazza Principe di Napoli, today it's called Piazza Alessandria, in Rome. Here her design reinterpreted the Roman market typology, by utilizing the modern material of reinforced concrete.
Lizi: oooo we love concrete.
Jessica: I almost forgot about her teaching lol but that's cool and yes - we love the concrete
Norgerie: Do you hear that?
Jessica: What? Concrete settling?
Norgerie: Great guess! But noo it’s the sound of a break to hear a word from our podcast supporters.
Norgerie: Ok, do you hear that ?
Jessica: What? Another break?
Norgerie: No, only one break per episode. I hear a song, Elena is going to the chapel and she’s gonna get married. When she was 36 years old she got married to the engineer Felice Romoli. Don't ask me to share anything about him because I couldn’t find much info on him. I think he worked in the government too.
Lizi: oooo wedding bells!
Jessica: but that's exciting so one of her collaborators was a FOREVER Collaborator? Cute!
Norgerie: In 1945, she won the competition to design Prima Porta Cemetery in Rome, also known as Cimeterio Flaminio and Cimeterio Montebello. Got a lot of names.
Lizi: Yeah wow. That seems confusing. Also super interesting to design a cemetery.
Jessica: yeah she is really expanding her portfolio
Norgerie: It's a famous cemetery for a few reasons. One reason is because it's the final resting place of a lot of famous Italians.
Lizi: ooo like who? Any names we can drop?
Norgerie: The Cemetery has a wikipedia page and that page has a long list of names, but no one I recognized.
Lizi: Ah ok, I’ll check the list later.
Norgerie: Then another major reason it's a famous cemetery is because it's the largest cemetery in Italy. Learning that it's the largest in the country made me realize I've never thought about how cemeteries can be master plan projects, and it really should be designed and thought out.
Lizi: Yeah I was thinking the same thing that it is actually kind of a mini urban planning project.
Jessica: It is. There are so many factors to consider, navigation of vehicles and people, variations of tombstones, or mausoleums. Then there is the landscape and walkways.
Norgerie: Our girl Elena, she thought about it. Many of the tombs are inside buildings that have a semicircular shape. Programmatically she zoned different spaces by religion which I found really smart. Cause different religions will have different practices, culture, needs...
Lizi: ohhh that is smart.
Jessica: ooh that is interesting - I always thought that cemeteries were grouped by specific religions. But that is so cool
Norgerie: The cemetery also has fields for graves and a crematorium.
Jessica: it really does sound like urban planning
Norgerie: According to a Wikipedia page it is considered a masterpiece of contemporary cemetery architecture.
Lizi: oooooo that’s right it is!
Norgerie: That same year she had another cemetery project: The French military cemetery. The site for this project apparently had a lot of constraints, and even the program was complicated. The Italian government designated a space of land where they wanted to commemorate the French soldiers who died on Italian soil fighting Nazi-Fascism. The French army included Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, people from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. So this time Elena designed the space for Catholics, Muslims, and Jews to be alongside each other just like they were as they fought against totalitarian regimes. The cemetery became a symbol of the tolls of wars and of unity. If you look at pictures it’s actually very pretty Elena employed her knowledge of traditional Mediterranean and Italian gardens to assemble the space in a really pleasing way.
Lizi: wow. I love how thoughtful and meaningful her designs are.
Jessica: Agreed - please tell us there are photos in the shownotes?
Norgerie: You’ll have to go to find out. In 1950, she designed the Mercato Primavalle, Primavalle I Market in Rome. It has been described as a leading example of an open and fluid internal architectural space. It used to house over 50 stalls. Unfortunately, I found an article, that while not dated it seemed to be from the late 2010s and it said only 5 tenants remain. One of these tenants is an office named Interazioni Urbane (literally, Urban Interactions). So of course, I had to look that up. And what I found had me dreaming of moving to Italy and joining them.
Lizi: ooohhhhh do tell!
Norgerie: Interazioni Urbane is a non-profit group of young architects, working alongside professionals from different social fields. They focus on creative projects that support communities, especially in disadvantaged urban areas. Their work includes educational and cultural initiatives, raising awareness about human rights, and collaborating internationally on urban recovery and redevelopment. And it's led by ladies, charrette alert!!!
Lizi: OMG. I LOVE this.
Jessica: OMG this is amazing
Norgerie: After searching on their website I’m not sure they’re still working at Primavalle but I love that Primavalle seems to represent everything they are about. They are a piece of history from the city in need of revitalization. Right now it is the host of a few urban interventions and urban artists, so it’s totally worth a visit if you’re in the area and are looking for an archventure.
Lizi: Putting it on my list.
Norgerie: So here my research got a little conflicting, one source stated Elena retired from working with the government and another source mentioned that from 1958 to 1964, she was lead architect for several public housing projects in Puglia, Sicily, Abruzzo, and Sardegna. Despite that all sources agree she kept her own practice until she was 77 years old.
Lizi: wow. She kept going and going.
Jessica: Well she had multiple jobs - so it is understandable that the dates got mixed up
Norgerie: Throughout her career she designed more than 40 buildings and she won about a dozen contests.
Jessica: Rockstar!
Norgerie: During her lifetime she was a publicly well-known architect in Italy, which is not something many women of that time could say, but she really put her name out there by participating in competitions and national expositions.
Lizi: That’s so great that she was recognized in Italy for her work and that she was able to keep her name in the mix through competitions. Sounds like she was strategic with that.
Jessica: I loved this!
Norgerie: There’s a lot of really good research out there on Elena and her projects. Check out our show notes of the tip of the iceberg. She could have easily been a two parter episode, but I really want to talk about three ladies this season so I’m going to end it here. She died in Rome in 1983. She was 83 years old.
Lizi: Wow. Thank you for sharing her story, she had such an interesting career and worked on so many interesting project types. I will never think of a cemetery in the same way. And I love that she was dedicated not only to architecture, but to working in government to help better her country through public projects.
Jessica: Agreed! What an incredible story.
Caryatid
Norgerie: Alright, now we have reached the second part of our episode, the Caryatid. A caryatid is a stone carving of a woman, used as a column or a pillar to support the structure of a Greek or Greek-style building. In each episode we choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties into the historical woman of our episode.
Norgerie: Drum roll please… Elisa Maceratini
Lizi and Jessica: (applause) Yeay!
Norgerie: Elisa Maceratini is the president and co-founder of Interazioni Urbane, which we mentioned earlier, as a refresher, it’s an italian NGOmade up of architects, facilitators and social innovators who develop processes of integration, social inclusion and sustainable development through participatory planning, community engagement and innovative design in cities and areas in need of renewal.
Lizi: How could she not be the caryatid! As soon as you mentioned Interazioni Urbane was led by women I was wondering!!
Jessica: I know! I thought it was going to be the whole group but glad that we get highlight their leader.
Norgerie: Elisa is an architect and urban planner, PhD in Urban Renewal, specialized in slum upgrading, urban and regional planning and participatory design, from the University of Sapienza Rome.
Jessica: ooh slum upgrading -so many specializations so cool
Norgerie: This lady is so impressive, she has worked in around 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America as international consultant for various agencies and governments.
Jessica: What a globe trotter
Norgerie: She’s well known for coordinating projects, workshops, and seminars focused on innovative sustainable methods and tools for urban participatory planning and in 2015, Sergio Mattarella, then President of Italy presented her with an award from the Italian Government for the commitment demonstrated in the social and professional sectors of the Italian female society.
Outro
Norgerie: Before we say goodbye we want to say thank you to CMYK for the music, John W our technical advisor. And most of all thank you for listening!
Lizi: Remember to check out our show notes for links to all of our resources on this episode as well as pictures of projects we’ve talked about.
Norgerie: We hope you enjoyed learning about today’s lady and caryatid along with our banter, and that you are inspired to find out more about them and other amazing professional ladies. Again, thank you.
Jessica: Please let us know what you thought of our episode. If you’ve enjoyed it please help us spread the word. Tell your friends and give us 5 stars on Itunes and Spotify, and write us a review, this will all help us reach a wider audience and for more people to learn about these amazing ladies with us.
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References
Amoroso, Serafina. “ELENA LUZZATTO 1900-1983.” UN DIA | UNA ARQUITECTA 2, 4 Nov. 2017, undiaunaarquitecta2.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/elena-luzzatto-1900-1983.
Bocci, Ezio. “The French Cemetery of Rome at Monte Mario.” Around Rome, 27 May 2024, www.aroundrome.it/en/blog/the-french-cemetery-of-rome-at-monte-mario.
Interazioni Urbane – Azioni Creative per Il Sociale. www.interazioniurbane.org.
Luzzatto Gabrielli Annarella — Scienza a Due Voci. scienzaa2voci.unibo.it/biografie/104-luzzatto-gabrielli-annarella.
Participatory Urban Planning – Elisa Maceratini | UN-Habitat. unhabitat.org/participatory-urban-planning-elisa-maceratini.
Sidorova, Milota. “Two Historians on Two First Women Architects. Florence Fulton Hobson (IE), Elena Luzzatto Valentini (IT). — WPS Prague.” WPS Prague, 23 Oct. 2016, www.wpsprague.com/blog/2016/10/22/two-historians-on-two-first-women-architects-florence-fulton-hobson-elena-luzzatto-valentini.
Ugolini, Chiara. “Primavalle Market.” Mercati Di Roma, www.marketsofrome.com/piazza-mazzini-xmas-market/primavalle-market1.
When in Rome...see the Street Art Round and About Mercato Coperato Primvalle I. romandespatches.blogspot.com/2018/07/when-in-romesee-street-art-round-and.html.
Wikipedia contributors. “Elena Luzzatto.” Wikipedia, 17 Jan. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Luzzatto..
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