1976-1981

Residential loft in Tribeca (Worth St.), New York City

1982

Residential loft in Chelsea (Rob Mounsey loft), New York City

1981

Residential Loft in Greenwich Village (Briggs loft, 686 Broadway), New York City

1980-1983

Residential loft and Open Atelier of Design studios and offices, West 29th St., New York City

1982-1983

Media Room, Hirsch Apartment on Riverside Drive, New York City

1986-1987

Traces of Lattimore (aka Dingman's Ferry and House on a Ridge) in Delaware Township, Pennsylvania, (Zambonini’s only free-standing structure)

1982-1983

Open Atelier of Design, Carlo Scarpa, Drawing and Photographs, co-curated with Livio Dimitriu and Hiroyuki Toyoda; co-sponsored by The New York Institute of Technology. This was the first exhibition devoted to Carlo Scarpa in the United States. The materials were also exhibited at the Italian Cultural Institute (NYC 1985) and the University of Cincinnati (1985).

1982

Open Atelier of Design, The Isometrics of Alberto Sartoris, co-curated with Livio Dimitriu.

Open Atelier of Design, Substitute Places: Douglas Cooper

1977 May 11

“Space as Proof of Existence,” Institute For Architecture and Urban Studies, New York.

1978 Feb 16

“The Image Notebook, Analysis and Methods,” Open Atelier of Design

1978 May 18

“The Make-up of the Image: Summary and Discussion,” Open Atelier of Design

1979 Apr 11

“Philosophies of Furniture,” Institute For Architecture and urban Studies, New York“Public Spaces in Medieval Italy”, March 25, 1982, OAD

1982 Mar 25

“Public Spaces in Medieval Italy," Open Atelier of Design

1983

"Process and Theme in the Work of Carlo Scarpa," Perspecta 20, Yale University.

1987

“Notes for a Theory of Making In A Time of Necessity,” Perspecta 24, Yale University.

1980

Faculty Exhibition, Graduate School of Architecture, Yale University

Fall 1985

Three New York Firms: OAD, Steven Holl, UKZ, Graduate School of Architecture, Columbia University

1986 Mar 9-Apr 20

Emerging Voices: Young Architects and Their Work, The Architectural League

1987

Faculty Exhibition, Graduate School of Architecture, Yale University

Gullans International, Original Drawings

IDC NY, New York Architects (travelling, Europe and U.S.)

Fall 2013

Every Thought Flies: Launching the Zambonini Archive, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design (Robert Kirkbride, curator)

2001

XX/XY: film, written and directed by Austin Chick, produced by Natural Nylon. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Kathleen Robertson, Maya Stange. Nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. Features apartment designed by Zambonini at 12 West 29th St., NY NY, with furniture by Zambonini’s last student, Robert Kirkbride.

2011

The Upside Down House: play by Edward Henwood, inspired by Zambonini’s taped lecture, “On Form.” Directed by Robert Perillo, produced by Brooke Alexander Productions. Play read at The Player’s Club (Gramercy Park, NY, March 2012); full dress rehearsal (September 2011)

2012

A Picture of You: film, directed by J.P. Chan, produced by Robert Chang and Yasmine Gomez. Features the House at Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania.

1976

Living in One Room, Jon Naar and Molly Siple, Random House, 1976 (featuring Zambonini’s Coca Cola Apartment on West 12th Street)

1978 Sep

Interiors

1979 Jun 14

“A Design Rebel Gathers Disciples,” Suzanne Slesin, New York Times, Home Section

1981 Sep

Progressive Architecture

1982 Oct

Skyline

1982 Nov 18

“Partial Walls: New Ways to Shape Space,” Carol Vogel, New York Times, Home Section

1983

GA 13 (Global Architecture)

New York Times Book of Details

SD 22 (Space Design), Tokyo, Japan

1985

Drawing Interior Architecture, Whitney Library of Design, N.Y.

1984 Apr 5

“Two Manhattan Apartments Turn Architecture Outside In,” Joseph Giovannini, New York Times, Home Section

1985 Apr 18

“New Built-In Designs Do More Than Add Space,” Joseph Giovannini, New York Times, Home SectionNew York Times, Arts Section, February 22, 1985, “Architecture: 3 Bright Spots,” Paul GoldbergerNew York Times, Home Section, February 19, 1987, “The Glow of Wood Paneling: Designers Explore Its Varied Uses,” Joseph GiovanniniThe Making of Architecture, The Harvard Architecture Review, 1989, published by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

1985 Feb 22

“Architecture: 3 Bright Spots,” Paul Goldberger, New York Times, Arts Section

1987 Feb 19

“The Glow of Wood Paneling: Designers Explore Its Varied Uses,” Joseph Giovannini, New York Times, Home Section

1989

"The Making of Architecture," The Harvard Architecture Review, published by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

Giuseppe Zambonini (1942-1990), was born in Viterbo, Italy. As an adolescent, he moved to Verona with his family. After secondary school, Zambonini studied architecture at the University of Florence, working with Leonardo Benevolo and Leonardo Ricci. After graduation, he attended the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice, where he studied with Carlo Scarpa, who directed his thesis on the architectural history of Verona. Other influential professors included Carlo Aymonino, Ignazio Gardella, and Aldo Rossi. Zambonini received his diploma in 1971. While at the university, Zambonini collaborated with the experimental theater company at Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, directing plays that were performed widely in northeastern Italy, and that won awards at several European festivals. In 1970, Zambonini became artistic and technical director of the Teatro Romanao in Verona, where he was responsible for some sixty performances each summer.

Theater brought Zambonini to the United States in late 1971, to take up an appointment at the Kennedy Center. After budget cuts eliminated the position, Zambonini accepted a teaching position at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) in New York City. In 1973, Zambonini became NYSID’s academic dean, in which position he revised the curriculum and secured state accreditation for an undergraduate degree program. He left NYSID in 1977 to found the Open Atelier of Design (initially the Open Atelier of Design and Architecture). The OAD's philosophy combined a design school with an apprentice program and working design studio, seeking to balance practice and application with theory and history. Through the Open Atelier, Zambonini merged interior design, architecture, industrial design and theater, emphasizing process exploration through drawing and full-scale making. In his widely published redesign of industrial loft spaces, Zambonini employed partial walls and “skirts” reminiscent of stage sets, using natural light and flexible spatial arrangements that enabled the coherent coexistence of new and old. Instructors and lecturers at the Open Atelier included Marco Frascari, Michael Kalil, George Ranalli, Lauretta Vinciarelli, Peter Eisenman, Richard Serra, Steven Holl, Jean Gardner, and Allan Wexler, among others.

In 1982, Zambonini was included in the first group of the New York Architecture League’s Emerging Voices. Also in 1982, Zambonini paid tribute to his mentor, Carlos Scarpa, by organizing the first U.S. exhibition devoted to the architect's work, and, in 1985, he led an AIA-sponsored study tour of Scarpa’s buildings in Italy. While leading the OAD, Zambonini also taught at the Yale Graduate School of Architecture, from 1981 through 1988; at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, from 1985 through 1988; and frequently served as guest critic at universities across the U.S. In the summer of 1988, Zambonini accepted an appointment as director of the architecture program at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. On July 7, 1990, Zambonini accidentally choked to death at his home in Atlanta. Survivors include his wife, Claudia Zambonini, their daughter, Donata, a brother, and two sisters.

Source for biography: Kenneth Henwood, Robert Kirkbride, Claudia Zambonini