1934 - 2013

One of the most prestigious critics of Latin American architecture, Roberto Segre was born in Milan in 1934, but his family moved to Buenos Aires in 1939, escaping Mussolini’s dictatorship. Though Segre studied architecture in Buenos Aires he did not stay in the capital and, seduced by the Revolution, moved to Cuba in 1963. There he defended his doctoral thesis on Art History, and there he developed his academic career for over thirty years as director of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Havana, teaching several generations of architects and historians, from Cuba and other Latin American countries. He left Cuba unexpectedly in 1994 and settled in Brazil, where he taught post-graduate studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It was during these years that he reactivated his career as historian, publishing several books to add on to the list of those written in Cuba, and that focussed more and more on Brazilian modernity. Segre’s last book was devoted to the Ministry of Education building by Niemeyer in Rio, but he was unable to see it published because was run over by a motorcycle in Niterói. He was 78.