Taglietti exhibition wins heritage award ahead of Milan opening

By Helen Musa

Enrico Taglietti at the Town House Motel Bunda Street Civic ACT 1961 (Now demolished),
Photographer not identified. Courtesy Taglietti Archive.

An exhibition developed by Canberra Museum + Gallery celebrating the life and legacy of influential Italian-Australian architect Enrico Taglietti has won the Events, Exhibitions and Tours category at the 2026 National Trust ACT Heritage Awards. 

In an overnight email from Milan, CMAG curator Virginia Rigney, who is there installing the exhibition, said Taglietti: Life in Design would open in the architect’s birthplace on October 20, marking 100 years since his birth in 1926.

Presented at Politecnico di Milano, where Taglietti graduated in architecture in 1953, the exhibition is making its first international appearance following its debut at CMAG in June 2025 and subsequent presentation at the University of Melbourne.

The Milan exhibition brings together original architectural drawings, photographs, models and personal objects tracing Taglietti’s international influences and contribution to Australian architecture. Highlights include a dress created by his wife, Franca Taglietti, using fabric designed by Italian artist Lucio Fontana.

Enrico Taglietti Proposal for a Visitor Centre Red Hill Canberra 1962. Courtesy Taglietti Archive.

The presentation introduces new research into the Tagliettis’ early creative life in Milan and 11 architectural models developed by Politecnico di Milano students, offering fresh perspectives on some of Taglietti’s most significant Australian buildings.

Rigney, who will travel to Barcelona to present a paper on Taglietti at the ICOM Design Conference, said the exhibition’s arrival in Milan provided an opportunity to share a distinctly Canberra story with an international audience.

Taglietti: Life in Design is curated by Virginia Rigney of CMAG, Silvia Micheli of The University of Queensland and Tanja Taglietti of Taglietti Studio + Archive, with Milan co-curators Marco Biraghi and Giampiero Bosoni of Politecnico di Milano.

First published at Canberra City News, October 15, 2026