Born in Bussi sul Tirino, Pescara, in
1938, he graduated from the Politecnico of Milan in 1964. In 1959/60 he began a
research on signs, aiming to achieve the ‘minimal experimental symbolic’,
that he would later illustrate in the exhibition “La ricerca morfologica”
(The morphologic research, 1963, with Alberto Seassaro) at the Politecnico of
Milan. In 1965, he started studying the structural links of spatial
visualisations, originated by large-scale experimentations. From 1967, he began
intervening on physical space and on territory with symbolic actions, using the
image as a instrument of revelation. With “Degrees of freedom” he carried
out a research on urban design aiming at the recuperation of still usable and
modifiable spaces within the city. He took part in the Radical movement with a
very diversified activity: from preparation or setting up of exhibitions (Italy:
the new domestic landscape, 1972; XIV Triennale di Milano, 1968) to the
theorical concept of impossible projects, videos and critical essays. In 1972,
he was chief editor of the magazines In,
In più and Fascicolo; since 1979,
he was design editor for Domus. In
1973, he was one of the founders of Global Tools, an educational workshop for
individual and collective creativity. After his Radical period, La Pietra
carried on his research in various fields: cinema, urban furnishing, artistic craftsmanship, organisation of exhibitions.