Paolo Deganello

Architect; Interior Designer; Product/Industrial Designer / Italy / Paolo Deganello Architetto e Designer

www.paolodeganello.it

Paolo Deganello graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Florence in 1966. He began his professional activity in 1963, collaborating on the restoration of Orsanmichele in Florence. As an urban planner he worked for the city of Calenzano (Florence) from 1963 to 1972. After graduating, he founded, in Florence with Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, and Massimo Morozzi, the studio Archizoom Associati (named after the British group of architects Archigram, and the journal Zoom). The group became a leader in the late 1960s Italian radical design movement—and Deganello worked with the studio until the group disbanded in 1974. Since 1973 he has operated his own studio in Milan devoted to architecture and product design.

From 1972 until 1974 Paolo Deganello taught design at Florence University and at the Architectural Association in London. In 1973 he designed the “AEO” chair and in 1982, he designed the now iconic “Torso” asymmetical lounge chair, both for Cassina. In the chairs he designs, Deganello often showcases the individual structural elements by using different materials for them. He designed the “Documenta Chair” for Documenta 8 in Kassel, Germany, in 1987. In 1991, Deganello created (for Zanotta) “Re” and “Regina,” a pair of chairs, for which he used steel for the legs and frame, wickerwork for the seats, and leather for the backs. In 1972 his work was featured in the landmark exhibition "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape" at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Other design work has included products for Driade, Marcatrè, Ycami Collection, Venini, Artelano, Vitra Editions, La Murrina, Teracrea, and Minimal Animal; building products for Secco, Rosada, and Polistone; silver household accessories for Greggio Argenterie; and a furnishing system for the Stefanel retail shops. In 2011 he was invited to create a project on the theme of chairs for the exhibition “Art on Chairs” held in Paredes, Portugal, for which he designed a “monumental” chair in five copies, built with only natural materials.

Among his additional achievements in architecture have been the restoration and renovation of numerous private residences in Italy as well as a restaurant and a winery for Can Ràfols dels Caus near Barcelona, Spain.

Paolo Deganello’s work has been exhibited widely since the 1970s and is in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including the London Design Museum, The Vitra Design Museum, and the Denver Art Museum.

A respected educator, he has taught at the Architectural Association and the ISIA in Florence, Domus Academy, the IAUV in Venice, and the ESAD in Matosinhos, Portugal, where he currently teaches interior design.

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