Italo Rota born in Milan in 1953. After an apprenticeship at the studio of Franco Albini and Vittorio Gregotti, he graduated in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic in 1982. From 1976 to 1981, he was editor of the Lotus International magazine, and he edited a number of editions on architecture, including: Mario Botta and Vittorio Gregotti.

In 1980 he was responsible with Gae Aulenti for the projects for the Museé d’Orsay and for the museum of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Since 1981 he has worked in France, where he has won a number of competitions and has been commissioned to handle the projects for the French painting rooms in the Cour Carré at the Louvre and for the restructuring of and transport planning for the centre in Nantes; in 1990 the project began for the Casa Italiana at Columbia University in New York, built in 1994. In 1999 he won the competition for the interiors of the new central headquarters of the Deutsche Bank in Milan, which is in the phase of completion, and since 1999 he has run the project for the construction of two lines of the LAM light underground system for the city of Brescia. In 2001 he won the first prize at the international competition for the new 20th century museum of L’Arengario in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, and the first prize for a public and private office building with an urban park in Perugia. He has worked on public projects for the municipalities of Perugia, Verona, Brescia, Jesi, Empoli, Bologna, Riccione and Misano, and for shops and private buildings in Milan, Miami, Moscow and Mumbai. He has created exhibitions for Pitti Immagine, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Louis Vuitton, the Triennial in Milan, the Biennial in Venice, IFA Paris, Roberto Cavalli, the Municipality of Padua. He has designed products for the office, lighting and urban furnishing for various Italian and foreign companies. In 1994 he received the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme in Paris and in 1996 the Landmark Conservancy award of New York.