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Giovanni Klaus Koenig (1924-1989):Architectural Criticism between Semiology, Industrial Design and Rail TrainsLorenzo CiccarelliDepartment of Architecture, University of FlorenceToday almost forgotten Giovanni Klaus Koenig (1924-1989) was one of the most influential architectural critics of the post-war Italy. Full professor of History of contemporary architecture in Florence between 1967 and 1989, and director of the magazines “Casabella” and “Parametro”, Koenig always shifted from different disciplines with the declared intention of blurring architectural criticism between Semiology, History of industrial design, History of material culture, History of the technics.Next to fundamental books on architectural criticism – as L’invecchiamento dell’architettura moderna (1963) and Architettura dell’espressionismo (1967) – Koenig was one of the pioneers in transferring the themes and the methods of semiology in architecture. At the middle of the sixties he called the young Umberto Eco (1932-2016) to teach Semiology at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence. The collaboration between Eco and Koenig fostered the publication of the seminal essay Architettura e comunicazione (1970).In years in which politics and ideology dominated the architectural debate Giovanni Klaus Koenig encouraged a technical and ‘material’ vision of architecture. As a founder of the Istituto Superiore delle Industrie Artistiche (ISIA) in Florence in 1975 – one of the first Industrial Design Universities in Italy – he wrote several essays on History of industrial design and prompted the application of methods and techniques of industrial design as a tool for renovating the contemporary architecture.Passionate to the History of transports and the railways Giovanni Klaus Koenig also designed the Jumbo Tram (1976-78) for the Milan Public Transports and other several railways coaches.Based on unpublished materials kept at the Giovanni Klaus Koenig Archive at the University of Florence my contribution aims to deepen the Koenig’s peculiar vision of architectural criticism, investigating how the other disciplines influenced it and comparing Koenig’s profile to his Italian colleagues like Bruno Zevi or Manfredo Tafuri.&#160;Lorenzo Ciccarelli (Jesi, 1987) graduated in Building Engineering-Architecture at the Università Politecnica delle Marche in 2011. In January 2016 he obtained the Ph.D. cum laude in Civil Engineering: Architecture and Construction (curriculum in History of Architecture) at the Università di Roma Tor Vergata with a thesis entitled Renzo Piano before Renzo Piano. The formative years 1958-1971. From 2013 he collaborates with the Fondazione Renzo Piano in Genoa with which he contributed to conceive and organize the following exhibitions: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Pezzo per pezzo (Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, 2014); Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Progetti d’acqua (Genoa, Museo Navale, 2015); La méthode Piano (Paris, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, 2015–2016). From 2016 he is Postdoctoral researcher at the Università di Roma Tor Vergata. He teaches History of Contemporary Architecture at the University of Florence.