Milano Collage

FRANCESCO SORO was born in Milan and graduated in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1968. After various experiments in the field of architecture and interior design, in 1973 he began in Ibiza the activity which would become one of the most important of his career. There he designed Roca Llisa, one of the most beautiful urbanizations of the island.
In 1975 he designed the first table with triangular compositions (Tender) for Maddalena De Padova. For De Padova he also designed other products and, in parallel with the ICF sale, he won the Compasso d’Oro award in 1981 thanks to a sofa especially made for Maddalena De Padova that set a trend with that removable cover thrown on the sofa.
In the following years he designed products for other important companies such as ICF, Matteograssi, Driade, Poliform, Halifax T70, Joint and Cyrus Company, ranging from seats and tables to beds with innovative materials and ideas.
Over the past two decades Soro has been mainly engaged in architecture, both public and private. Among the most important projects of those years there are the new Department of Biology of the University of Milan, finished in 1982 and designed in partnership with Vico Magistretti, and the architectural complex in Piazzale Dateo in Milan, a project that has been never carried out, always in collaboration with Vico Magistretti. For the University of Milan he designed the building of the department of Chemistry and Physics in Via Golgi, the ISU office building and the halls of residence in Via Gustavo Modena (renovation of a building designed by Giò Ponti in 1934).
For the State of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil he rearranged 100 kilometres of coastline and proposed to the Lombardy Region the bold idea of a suspended building for the Policlinico Hospital of Milan. In Milan he designed the new Gaetano Pini Rehabilitation Hospital. In 2004 an international group entrusted him with the project of a 70,000 m2 resort in Calafell, between Barcelona and Tarragona.
In the last years, he designed the buildings in Via Melzi d’Eril 4 and Via Canonica and planned two resorts: one in Leptis Magna (Libya) and another one in Agrigento. Among the most recent plans that are a multipurpose and residential centre in Dublin, a tourist-residential complex in Panama and a flat building in Asso (Como).