Franco Zagari (Rome, Italy, 16 January 1945–21 June 2023) was an architect, landscape architect, professor and researcher. He graduated in Architecture from the Università di Roma La Sapienza in 1971. He began his academic career in Reggio Calabria in 1975 and, from the 1980s onwards, focused his professional, academic and theoretical work on landscape architecture, gardens and public space.
He was Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, where he founded the Dipartimento OASI, which he directed from 2002 to 2008, and for more than a decade coordinated the doctoral programme devoted to parks, gardens and territorial planning. He also taught at La Sapienza University of Rome. Between 1996 and 2004, he served as president of the Rome and Lazio section of IN/Arch.
Among his most significant works are the Italian Garden for Expo 1990 in Osaka, Piazza Matteotti in Catanzaro, the visitor centre for the prehistoric caves of Niaux, Piazza Montecitorio in Rome, the system of central squares in Saint-Denis, the seafront promenade in Porto Sant’Elpidio, the floating terrace on the EUR lake in Rome, and various proposals for the headquarters of the Presidency of the Republic of Georgia in Tbilisi. His project for the squares of Saint-Denis received the European Gubbio Prize in 2009.
His theoretical work developed in parallel with his professional practice through books, essays, exhibitions and documentaries. His publications include L’architettura del giardino contemporaneo (1988), Questo è paesaggio. 48 definizioni (2006), Giardini. Manuale di progettazione (2009) and Sul paesaggio. Lettera aperta (2013). In 1998, he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and in 2014 he received the RomArchitettura Award for his professional career.
