Achille Castiglioni

Achille Castiglioni was born in Milan 1918. He graduated in 1944 with a degree in architecture and 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.

MoMA in New York features 14 of his works and other works can be found at the V&A (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 was made an Honorary Member of the "Committee of Advisors" at Art Centre College of Design (Pasadena, California and Montreaux, Switzerland) and In 1986 he was made an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, Royal Society of Art (London).

Achille Castiglioni 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.