Tomaso Buzzi’s focus on designing glasses lasted only for a few years. Born in Sondrio in 1900, the son of a wealthy family created his first pieces for the Triennials of Decorative Arts in 1927 and 1930. As artistic director of Venini, he put his mind to the material between 1932 and 1934 and designed the 'Laguna' and 'Alga' series for them. Subsequently, he dedicated himself to architecture and the designing of luxurious interiors again.
Buzzi, who studied architecture at the Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore in Milan, is one of the most versatile designers of Italian modernism. Perhaps this versatility is the very reason why only few monographic studies dedicated to his work can be found to this day. He built villas for the Italian aristocracy, designed fantastic accessories from pillows to screens, and created neo-historicist furniture in fine timbers. He began his career in the circle of artists of the Novecento Milanese group, such as the architects Giovanni Muzio, Ottavio Cabiati and Giuseppe de Finetti, with whom he later founded the Club degli Urbanisti in order to participate in the urban transformation of Milan with projects such as Forma Urbis Mediolani. Gio Ponti was one of his most important companions. Together, they realized Buzzi’s first projects such as the Villa L'Ange Volant in Garches near Paris. Buzzi also was a talented journalist and wrote for the Domus magazine about architecture and topics in the field of Applied Arts.
At the end of the 1930s, Tomaso Buzzi became a sort of a court architect to the Italian aristocracy. First he restored several villas by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio in the Veneto, for example the Villa Maser. For Duke Alessandro Contini Bonacossi he furnished the Villa Vittoria in Florence, and in Venice he modernized the apartment of Nicosetta Visconti di Modrone. In contrast to some of his neo-historical architect colleagues, Buzzi was a convinced anti-fascist, which led not least to his almost complete withdrawal from the public eye at the end of the 1930s. He did fulfill his teaching assignment at the Politecnico in Milan. However, he refrained from publishing his designs in magazines, with a few exceptions, in American media such as the Vogue or the Harper's Bazaar. In 1940, Buzzi broke with Gio Ponti, who actually planned to win him over for his new magazine 'Stile'. Between 1953 and 1956 he was responsible for the interior design of the villa of the sewing machine manufacturer Vittorio Cecchi in Nervi near Genoa, which is now open to the public.
From the mid-fifties on he realized a very personal building project in Montegabbione, Umbria, on the site of an old, 13th century monastery. He created the ideal city of 'La Scarzuola', renamed 'La Buzziana' after his passing in 1981. A dense, perspective-distorted conglomeration of temples, staircases, towers and a theater with stylistic elements from antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Mannerism. "A biography in stone," as Buzzi summed it up in his own words. The architect, who was extremely well educated in literature and history, housed his archives, books and art collection in his mansion. His last major public commission was the restoration of parts of the Arsenale in Venice, which he was involved with from 1970 to 1978.
