Raffaele Ripoli was born in Scigliano (Cosenza- Calabria), in 1961. In 1989 he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Florence (supervisor Prof. Loris Macci) and obtained the qualification to the profession of architect. From 1989 to 1991, he worked in Florence, in part-time collaboration with several architectural design and illustration studios. From 1993 to 1998 he worked, with fixed-term contracts, for different architectural design offices in the Netherlands, including the Architecture Studio in Amsterdam (Partner of Prof. Aldo Rossi, Milan). At the same years (1989-1998) he returned for some periods in Calabria and developed new projects for single-family dwellings, where the vernacular language of the rural tradition is mixed with the minimalist language of modern and contemporary architecture. In 1993 he won the competition with Vincenzo Milella and Alberto Bongi for the design of a semi-detached house in Casamassima (Bari). In these years he participated in several national and international competitions, among them Europan.

After several architectural collaborations in the Netherlands, at the beginning of 1999 he returned to Italy and in Calabria he started his own architectural design studio in Scigliano (Cosenza). Among the various works of a “public” character the Municipal Public Garden in Colosimi, the Multipurpose Covered Market in Scigliano, the Renovation of the former Gymnast- wing attached to the Sanctuary of Monserrato- to be used as housing for the self-sufficient elderly in Scigliano and the recovery of a Rural Complex to be used as an accommodation facility in Bianchi. Other works include interior projects such as the Bank in Scigliano and the Showroom in Amantea. In 2008 he was commissioned by the Municipality of Scigliano for the drafting of the Municipal Structural Plan. In recent years (2017-19) he worked on the project and management of works of a public park with Municipal Pool on behalf of the administration of Scigliano. Other projects involve “private” works such as interiors of homes and new single-family houses and/or renovations and expansions. Since 2017 he has been involved in the research and cataloguing of rural houses and abandoned villages in the territory of Scigliano. The aim of the project is to propose the structural-architectural recovery of this building heritage for a potential housing supply aimed at the tourism market coming mainly from Northern Europe.

In 2000 he obtained the teaching degree in History of Art and Fine Arts and since 2008 he has been teaching Artistic Education and Art History in Middle School and High School. Since 2010 he has exhibited his paintings in several cultural centres and galleries, including the ‘Granarone’ in the charming historic centre of Calcata (Viterbo). Later, in Rome he has participated in the Charity Art Exhibition (for the orphans of the Tsunami victims in Japan in 2011) and he sold his work entitled ‘Tsunami’, whose proceeds has been donated for the construction of a kindergarten in Japan. In 2012 he participated in a collective exihibition at the Palazzo Ducale in the historic centre of Castelnuovo di Porto (Rome) to support a rehabilitation project of prisoners, many of them life sentences, in which the artists interpreted the poems and the texts written by prisoners of the Turin Penitentiary. Ripoli offered his contribution with the painting ‘La Tarantella dei carcerati’ (the prisoners’Tarantella) inspired by a poem written by an inmate. He is currently on display at the Baldini Library of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in Via Mercadante in Rome. His paintings are currently on permanent display at the studio-atelier in Scigliano in the province of Cosenza. He currently lives in Calabria between Scigliano, Montalto Uffugo and Cosenza where he works as an Architect as a Teacher and a Painter.