(b Rome, 1 Dec 1943). Italian architect and theorist. She studied at the Università La Sapienza, Rome, and her early collaboration with FRANCO PURINI on an urban project (1966; unexecuted) for the bank of the River Tiber, Rome, led to a long partnership between the two. As a theorist, Thermes attempted to unite the legacy of 20th-century Rationalism, particularly the experiments of the Russian Constructivists, the elementarism of the early Le Corbusier and the work of the Italian Gruppo 7, especially Adalberto Libera and Giuseppe Terragni, to the wider history of architecture. Her approach was also indebted to the essay Comment j’ai écrit certains de mes livres (1935) by Raymond Roussel (1877–1933). Her plans and projects exhibit qualities of excess and rhetorical complexity, reminiscent of Piranesi, in a search for an imaginative synthesis of her sources of inspiration. Her most successful designs relate to the theme of the house and its ability to restore a metaphorical dimension to urban life. These include the Casa des Farmacista (1980), Gibellina, Sicily; a residential block of 65 flats (1983) in Naples; and housing (1983) for archaeological excavations at Testaccio, Rome, all executed in collaboration with Purini. She also designed the chapel of S Antonio, Poggioreale, Sicily, and was professor of architectural composition at the Università La Sapienza, Rome, from 1971, and a contributing editor to Contraspazio (1974–80).