Achille Castiglioni

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Sergio Polano

Electa Architecture; distributed by Phaidon Press, Milan, London, 2002, Italian, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

ISBN: 9781904313045

From the Publisher. Achille Castiglioni (1918–2002) was one of the most important and prolific designers of the 20th century. This comprehensive monograph is the only detailed study of his remarkable career and includes a catalogue of his complete works from 1938–2000 spanning architecture and exhibition, interior and product design. An essay by Sergio Polano describes Castiglioni’s important collaborations with his brothers Livio and Pier Giacomo and discusses his diverse range of projects including the spatial design work that dominated his early career as well as his later, better known product designs.

Castiglioni’s work is celebrated for its combination of technical innovation with an aesthetically-pleasing form, as demonstrated in his elegant Luminator floor lamp for Gilardi & Barzaghi (1955) and the distinctive Frisbi hanging light for Flos (1978). His designs also demonstrated wit – the ‘readymade’ furniture designs created with Pier Giacomo in 1957 incorporated tractor and bicycle seats into new stools. He created hundreds of pieces of furniture, lighting and products for a distinguished client list including Kartell, Knoll, Zanotta, Alessi and Siemens. With more than 800 photographs and drawings, this monograph does full justice to his designs, which won eight prestigious Compasso d’Oro prizes.

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Alice Rawsthorn

On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List

Poring over the hundreds of photographs and drawings in Sergio Polano's study of the great Italian designer Achille Castiglioni of the projects that he worked on from 1938 until 2000, first with his brothers Pier Giacomo and Livio, and then on his own, is akin to walking around one of my favorite design museums, the five first-floor rooms of the lugubrious 18th-century palazzo in Milan, which served as Castiglioni’s studio for nearly 60 years and are now conserved intact as Studio Museum Achille Castiglioni. . . . View the complete text

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