Vittorio Gregotti, an Italian architect who helped design the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium, has died aged 92 after catching the coronavirus, Italian media said.

Gregotti died of pneumonia on Sunday after being hospitalised in Milan, having fallen ill with Covid-19, the Corriere della Sera newspaper and AGI news agency reported.

The Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Spain, designed by architect Vittorio Gregotti. Photograph: Diliff / Wikipedia

He also designed the Marassi stadium in Genoa for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, and the Arcimboldi opera theatre in Milan, a futuristic structure built to allow the season to continue while La Scala was renovated from 2002 to 2004.

Other highlights of a career that also saw him build a housing district in Shanghai include the Belém cultural centre in Portugal and the Grand Théâtre de Provence in France.

The Arcimboldi opera theatre in Milan. Photograph: AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Paying tribute, fellow Italian architect Stefano Boeri called Gregotti a “master of international architecture” who “created the story of our culture”.

“What a great sadness,” he wrote on Facebook.

Gregotti’s wife, Mariana Mazza, has been hospitalised at the same Milan hospital, Corriere della Sera said, without providing further details.

Belém Cultural Centre , Lisbon. Photograph: via EU Mies Prize