Umberto Riva

Umberto Riva was born in Milan in 1928. He is best known for the breadth of his design work, with projects that address urban spaces, archi­tec­ture, land­scap­ing, inte­rior design, and product design. He studied archi­tec­ture in Venice under Carlo Scarpa. His work often paid partic­u­lar atten­tion to the expe­ri­ence of a space or a product rather than adher­ing to the tenants of clas­si­cal archi­tec­ture or design prin­ci­ples. Design influ­ences include Scarpa, Frank Lloyd Wright and Amer­i­can Crafts­man Style as a whole, with partic­u­lar impact coming from the designs of the 1930s. Awards and acco­lades for Riva include being named a Fellow of the Accad­e­mia di San Luca, and receiv­ing the Gold Medal for Italian Archi­tec­ture by the Trien­nale di Milano in 2003.