Founded in Milan in 1957 by the critic and publisher Bruno Alfieri, Zodiac launched with an address by Walter Gropius and articles by Sigfried Giedion and Ettore Sottsass Jr. — an immediate, prescient survey of modern architecture in Europe and America, published under the auspices of Olivetti.
Alfieri served as publishing director, with Roberto Sambonet as art director; the critic Pier Carlo Santini, previously editor of the Italian art tabloid SeleArte, also played a role in shaping the journal's direction. Issued initially twice yearly by Edizioni di Comunità in Milan, Zodiac was printed quadrilingually — Italian, English, French, and German — reflecting its ambition as a genuinely international review.
Alfieri went on to found a string of influential design and art journals, including Arte Lombarda (1954), Quadrum (1955), Metro (1960), and Lotus (1963) — but Zodiac remains among the most celebrated, publishing landmark coverage of figures from Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier to Eero Saarinen and Alvar Aalto across its long run.
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Italian art critic and publisher (1927–2008); founded Zodiac and a string of other influential art and architecture journals including Lotus and Metro.
Credited as art director on the journal's first issue.
Previously editor of the Italian art tabloid SeleArte (1951–1957); played a role in shaping Zodiac's direction alongside Alfieri.
Scans of the 40 issues held in this archive were digitised, paginated, OCR-processed, and assembled into PDF booklets by the Architectural Periodicals Database team.
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