Franco Albini (1905 - 1977) was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect, designer, and university instructor in design.  Born in Robbiate, Italy, Albini obtained his degree in architecture in 1929 from the Politecnico di Milano University in 1929 and began his professional career working for Gio Ponti and shortly thereafter, opening his own practice in 1931 where he took on the challenge of workers' housing and continued in this vein following WWII, thanks to the opportunities offered by the reconstruction projects he worked on with Franca Helg from 1952.  During the 1940s, Albini expanded his collaboration with Cassina, which started with chair designs that paved the way for his signature style.  He also pursued his furniture designs with other firms like Poggi.  His numerous urban development and building projects for Genoa include the Palazzo Bianco (1949/51), Palazzo Rosso (1952/62), and Tesoro di San Lorenzo (1952/56) museums.  Throughout his life, Albini was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and accolades.  In all his work, from home furnishings to industrial and museum design projects, Franco Albini always instilled a logical consistency, an extreme purity of expression, and exceptional ethical and historical integrity.  The architectural and design work of Franco Albini represents a keystone of the Italian architectonic culture from the early 20th century through his intense activity revolving around a creative and rigorous approach to composition and building that expresses a particularly high degree of aestheticism.