Pietro (known as Piero) Portaluppi was born in Milan, son of the engineer Oreste Portaluppi and wife Luisa Gadda. He graduated in 1905 from the
Istituto Tecnico Carlo Cattaneo and registered at the
Politecnico, studying with and
Carlo Calzecchi. During this time, he worked as a
caricaturist with the satirical newspapers
Il Babau,
A quel paese, and
Guerin Meschino. Other projects during this period were the
Palazzo della Banca Commerciale Italiana (1928–1932), the
Planetarium Hoepli (1929–1930), residential buildings for the Buonarroti-Carpaccio-Giotto family (1926–1930), the Casa Crespi on
Corso Venezia (1927–1930), and the Palazzo Crespi on Corso Giacomo Matteotti (1928–1932). He designed the Italian Pavilion for the
Universal Exposition in Barcelona in 1929. Among his most important works are the
Palazzo INA, Piazza Diaz (1932–1937), the
Villa Necchi Campiglio on via Mozart (1932–1935), (1934–1936), the
Palazzo Ras on via Torino (1935–1938), and
Case Brughera on via Tiziano in Milan (1936–1938). Between 1934 and 1938, he worked on the historic restoration of the Church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie and continued that work after the war. Following the Second World War, he devoted himself increasingly to teaching and professional organizations. He continued to design and collaborated on later architectural projects with
Gio Ponti (1956–1962). Portaluppi "had fallen into relative obscurity, tainted after the war by his professional association with the [Fascist] regime", until 2009 when the Villa Necchi Campiglio was used as a principal shooting location for
Luca Guadagnino's film
I Am Love. photograph showing Case Brughera on the left and piazza Michelangelo Buonarroti in the distance == Personal life and death ==