Achille Castiglioni
Achille CASTIGLIONI was born was born in Milan in 1918 and graduated with a degree in architecture in 1944. As early as 1940 he dedicated himself to testing industrial production with his brothers Livio (1911-1979) and Pier Giacomo (1913-1968). After graduating, he began research into shapes, techniques and new materials, aimed at developing an integral design process.
In 1969, he was authorized by the Ministry of Education to teach "Artistic Design for Industry" and was a professor at Turin´s Faculty of Architecture until 1980 and then professor of "Industrial Design " in Milan until 1993.
Since 1950 he worked in the area of testing and research into outfittings and presentations for exhibitions (Triennale di Milano, Montecatini, Agip, Rai) and in 1956 he was one of the founders of ADI (Association for Industrial Design).
MoMA in New York features 14 of his works. Other works can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Kunstgewerbe Museum (Zurich), Staatliches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (Munich), Museo del Design (Prato), Uneleckoprumyslove Prague Museum, Israel Museum (Jerusalem), The Denver Art Museum, Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein), Angewandte Kunst Museum (Hamburg and Cologne).
He has been awarded 9 Compasso d´Oro and staged a one-man show between 1984 and 1986 organized by the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (Vienna), then at Akademie der Kunst (Berlin), Triennale di Milano (Milan), Kunstgewerbe Museum (Zurich), Haags Gemeentemuseum (the Hague), Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid) and at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris).
In 1985 he was made an Honorary Member of the "Committee of Advisors" at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California and Montreaux, Switzerland) and in 1986 an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, Royal Society of Art (London). He has also been awarded a string of other accolades.
He remains one of our most prolific designers of iconic products such as the Arco Lamp, Taraxacum and Frisbi lights for Flos as well as many other lighting designs and numerous household items for Alessi. His activity as a designer is an unmistakable blend of simplicity, irony and fun and its shows his close interest in the way objects are used, in the potential offered by technology and in the use of new materials.
He died in Milan in 2002.
