The works of Luca Moretto, who was born and trained in Turin, are a harmonious weave of making and painstaking research. From its very title, this book reflects this approach, well analysed in Cesare Piva’s text which orders the works analogically as if in a family album, arranged by theme and subject, geography and construction technique. The buildings, interventions, projects, watercolours and historical studies are investigated in minute detail and amicably, mixing constants and digressions, prompted by analysis of the objects and conversations with Moretto, as well as perceptions developed during the personal living experience. That is to say, what matters most.

The book contains a selection of his civil works, all the result of listening to the client-dweller and nature, as demonstrated by Moretto’s own words when describing the refurbishment of the Collegio Einaudi in Turin (2011-2015): “The design choices were guided by a need to restore dignity to the act of living. The college room is a temporary surrogate of the student’s home and so must possess some of its qualities. A home that does not look to the past, however, and accompanies them into the future. The room is therefore a space-theatre where actions such as sleeping, studying, relaxing, loving, socialising and thinking, i.e. living, are played out.”

The works presented include the restoration of the Mausoleo Bela Rosin (2000-05) with Gabetti & Isola; the creation of the San Luigi Gonzaga educational hub and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Orbassano, with Luciano Luciani (2002-05); the new Courthouse and the restoration and extension of the Pinacoteca Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (2002-13), with Aimaro Isola.

Moretto’s works derive from the act of drawing, a means of communication and creative reflection; they then develop onsite, a place of verification and imagination. They are anti-rhetorical, lacking in self-reference and demiurgical attitudes. They are shaped by a free use of historical and critical research – the history of 20th-century architecture and drawing on architects’ archives – deciphered with the intelligence of love.