Name Achille Castiglioni | ||
 | ||
Education Polytechnic University of Milan Books Design Interface: How Man and Machine Communicate : Olivetti Design Research by King & Miranda Siblings Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Livio Castiglioni | ||
Achille Castiglioni, a man full of sparks
Achille Castiglioni ([aˈkille kastiʎˈʎoni]; 16 February 1918 – 2 December 2002) was an Italian designer of furniture, lighting, radiograms and other objects.
Contents
- Achille Castiglioni a man full of sparks
- Milan Design Week 2017 Fundao Achille Castiglioni
- Life
- Work
- References
Milan Design Week 2017: Fundação Achille Castiglioni
Life
Castiglioni was born on 16 February 1918 in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. He was the third son of the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni and his wife Livia Bolla. His elder brothers Livio and Pier Giacomo were both architects.
Castiglioni studied classics at the Liceo classico Giuseppe Parini in Milan, but switched to study the arts at the Liceo artistico di Brera. In 1937 he enrolled in the faculty of architecture of the Politecnico di Milano. When the Second World War broke out, he became an officer in the artillery, and was stationed on the Greek front and later in Sicily. He returned to Milan before the Allied Invasion of 1943. In March 1944 he graduated from the Politecnico.
When the War was over, Castiglioni joined the architectural design practice that his brothers Livio and Pier Giacomo had started with Luigi Caccia Dominioni in 1938. Much of their work was in exhibition design, but they also carried out a number of architectural projects, including the reconstruction in 1952–53 of the Palazzo della Permanente, which had been destroyed by bombing in 1943.
Livio Castiglioni left the practice in 1952. From then until Pier Giacomo died in 1968, he and Achille worked as a team; their designs are not attributable to either one of them. After the death of Pier Giacomo, Castiglioni worked alone. From 1969 he taught architectural and design subjects, first at the Politecnico di Torino, and then, from 1980 when he became an ordinario or full professor, at the Politecnico di Milano.
Achille Castiglioni died on 2 December 2002 in Milan.
Work
The Castiglioni brothers designed the "Lierna chair" – an upright dining-chair in lacquered wood with a slightly padded plywood seat – for Cassina in 1960, dedicated to one of the most beautiful villages of Lake Como named Lierna, where he had his own studio:173:79:356