Michele Michahelles

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Michele Michahelles (b.Italy, 1936) is an Italian and Swiss architect, best known for his work in Paris with MBA, the Marcel Breuer and Associates practice.

Michahelles was born in Florence into a prestigious artistic family that included the American sculptor Hiram Powers, painter Ruggero Michahelles, the Futurist designer and visionary Ernesto Michahelles (better known by his pseudonym "Thayaht"), as well as the portrait painter Assia Busiri-Vici. Trained as an agronomist, he left Italy to pursue architecture at the the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

He was in charge of the restoration of Les Invalides in Paris, as the assistant to the Chief Architect for Historic Monuments B. Monnet. For the Paris Municipality he was responsible for the landscaping of the Esplanade des Invalides as well as the Jardin de l'Intendant. For the Ministry of Veterans he renovated with F. Monnet the INI Hospital - Institution National des Invalides. For the Ministry of Finance, he won the competition for the "Hotel des Impots" of Martinique, with F. Monnet.

In 1983 Michele Michahelles joined MBA, Marcel Breuer Associates, as a partner. He was responsible, with his partner Mario Jossa, for the urban development project of IBM’s Essonne site (90 Ha), for the IBM Advance Bipolar Line production centre in France, and for a number of office buildings in La Defense - Paris totaling 60,000 m2. He won the competition for the Indosuez Bank Headquarters in Paris, 65,000 m2, now completed, and the competition for the Office and Manufacturing Complex for Sumitomo Sitix in Mante-la-Jolie, France.

Michele Michahelles works now in Italy, where he was involved in the tourist development project of the Filicudi Island, and is now active in projects of restoration of country estates and the development of tourist compounds. He will soon work on a project in the Middle East.

Michahelles has led projects worldwide, in regions ranging from the Middle East to Russia. He has also lectured on architectural theory and practice, teaching at Parsons School of Design in Paris, and has done extensive work in developing conceptual design projects in areas such as mass transportation, nautical design, and furniture design.