Roberto Malfatti
Architect
I was born in Bolzano and raised in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the Dolomites. I live and work in Florence. I aimed my professional life towards architecture and drawing because I loved both. I deal with multiple activities as a designer, urban sketcher, visualizer, illustrator, author of comics and graphic novels. I was one of the founding members of Politecnica, one of the major Italian design companies. I use the travel notebook to represent people’s lives, nature and the environment. I have collaborated with various magazines and publishing houses specialized in architecture, comics, illustrations for children, travel guides.
ACTIVITIES
I’ve started drawing since I was a child, I did it instinctively, attracted by nature, comics and cartoons. This was a passion that has never abandoned me and that has directed me into my professional life. I have chosen to be an architect because I felt I had a very powerful creative and communicative tool at my disposal. I’ve used drawing in various forms of language: technical, artistic, humoristic and conceptual. Drawing has always been easy for me. The passion for comics pushed me to become the author of illustrated stories for children and graphic novels for adults. The profession of architect has helped me to consolidate human, cultural and social principles that I have tried to feed by writing and traveling; so I became an urban sketcher. I broadened my mental horizon by filling my notebooks with notes and drawings. I also used the drawing in schematic form, developing graphs and organizational charts to coordinate workgroups. Through comics and irony I tried to express my critical reflections. I almost always draw in pre-packaged albums with paper suitable for watercolor, so I have the opportunity to express a quality drawing and I can easily find the illustration and the reference topic. Today I feel I can express a working method based, mainly, on manual drawing and the use of the booklet as a container for creative paths, replicas of nature and urban environments; places of life that have always stimulated my imagination.
