Mario Bellini
Architect
Known for his designs of Japan's Yokohama Business Park, Italy's City of Bologna Museum, and Paris' Islamic Arts wing of the Louvre Museum, he received numerous architectural awards, including the prestigious Medaglia d’Oro.
He began his career after graduating in the late 1950s from the architecture program at the Polytechnic University of Milan.
A designer of furniture as well as buildings, he worked for such companies as B&B Italia, Olivetti, and Cassina.
His body of work was given a 1987 retrospective exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
He and Giuseppe Terragni were both important twentieth-century Italian architects.