Sad

As much as I would like to avoid leaving my emotions out of this blog, whose meaning and purpose are orthogonal to them, I have to make an exception today.

Yesterday Giancarlo de Carlo died in his home in Milano. I received the news this morning. As I had the occasion to explain recently here de Carlo, who has been a internationally acclaimed architect, has also been a mentor and a friend to me for most of my childhood. He instilled me with the love for Astronomy, and it is not far-fetched to claim that if I am a scientist today I owe it at least in part to him.

Today I am very sad. Not just for losing a friend, but because I had sent him a letter just a month ago, after many years of silence. I do not know whether he was able to read it, since during the last month or so he has been mostly sedated, and conscious for just a few hours every day.

After I received a letter that Giancarlo had sent me 30 years ago (see here), my mother dug through her archives and found some ten more letters he wrote me between 1974 and 1977. Inconsciously feeling that Giancarlo was close to passing away, I brought those letters with me in my trip to Fermilab, and I have them with me now. I will write something about their content later.

By browsing the web in search of news of his death, I ran across the advertising of a new exhibit, which just started on June 1st, of his works, in Rome ("Giancarlo de Carlo: le ragioni dell'Architettura"). I will visit the exhibit at the end of June, when I'm due in Rome for a CMS-Italy software meeting. Expect lots of pictures here...

Comments

[Armando]

My deepest feelings on this for you and his family.

[qwerty]

condolence