Multiple news outlets are reporting that Umberto Riva has died in Italy at the age of 93.

The Italian architect was referred to as a maestro by his contemporaries who reacted to news of the passing of the architect and painter last week in Palermo.

Born to a Milanese family in 1928, Riva studied in Venice before eventually obtaining an apprenticeship in the office of Carlo Scarpa. Major works included the redevelopment of Piazza San Nazaro and the Biblioteca Europea, both in Milan; power plants in Campobasso and Termoli; a restored café in Padua; and several successful lamps for the Italian studio Tacchini.

Riva was widely known for a wide array of projects ranging from his stately private residences, well-lit interiors spaces, and designs for furniture that incorporated Riva’s sense of luminescence while communicating a simplicity of form reminiscent of his lifelong influence, Constantin Brâncuși.

“My work is constantly fostered and tested by my being in this world. Plus, there is the pleasure of making,” he told Hans Ulrich Obrist in an interview with PIN-UP “I’m not really talking about manual skills — I can draw but I wouldn’t know how to put two chunks of wood together — I’m referring to the experience of making and the relationship with those people who are makers, both of which lead you to amazing discoveries, open up new horizons, and show you things you didn’t know before.”

His innovative research and bold spirit will be sorely missed by the Archinect community.