Ignazio Gardella (1905-1999) encompassed a century of architecture. His career is punctuated by a number of occasions and «encounters» with such central figures on the cultural scene as Alvar Aalto, his main international reference point, Edoardo Persico, Giuseppe Pagano, Giuseppe Terragni, Franco Albini, Giuseppe Samonà, Ernesto Nathan Rogers and many other architects, who became his teachers, friends, travelling companions and pupils. The places he traversed — 1950s Milan, Venice and the exceptional experience at Istituto Univer-sitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV), Ivrea in the Adriano Olivetti years — intersect some theoretic themes at the core of the Italian and international architecture debate.