Achille Castiglioni
Encyclopedia
Career
Achille Castiglioni was born in Milan and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano University and set up a design office in 1944 with his brothers, Livio Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. In 1956, Castiglioni founded the Associazione per il Disegno IndustrialeAssociazione per il Disegno Industriale
ADI is an association of about 1.100 designers, manufacturers, trade newspeople, schools and researchers on design based in Italy.-References:** A web page dedicated to lifestyle. Contains an online design museum....
(Association for Industrial Design, ADI).
Castiglioni taught for many years, first at the Politecnico di Torino. In 1969 and later he led a class in Industrial Design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
at the faculty of Architecture at Politecnico di Milano, teaching several thousand students.
Castiglioni has exhibited his designs at every Milan Triennial since 1947 and has received seven Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro is the name of an Industrial Design award originated in Italy in 1954 by the La Rinascente company from an original idea of Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli. From 1964 it has been hosted exclusively by Associazione per il Disegno Industriale . It is the first and most recognized award...
awards. Most of Castilglioni's products are design classics and are still in production under licence. The Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
has some of his most important designs in its permanent collection.
Works of the "Castiglioni brothers"
The professional partnership by Achille Castiglioni, Livio Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni has been called the "Castiglioni brothers", which Livio left in 1952. This group has become one of the most witty, elegant and innovative partnerships in modern design. The brothers worked from the viewpoint that design must restructure an object's function, form and production process, and applied this maxim to every work that they produced. Castiglioni described this process with these words: "Start from scratch. Stick to common sense. Know your goals and means".1950s
In the 1950s the Castiglioni brothers publicly cemented their commitment to redesigning objects, with their tractor seat stool, Mezzadro and their SellaSella
Sella may refer to:People* Aviem Sella, an Israeli fighter pilot* Emanuele Sella, an Italian cyclist* Philippe Sella, a French Rugby Union player* Quintino Sella, an Italian statesman* Vittorio Sella, an Italian mountaineer and photographer...
chair made of a bicycle seat. Castiglioni said of his design for the Sella, "When I use a pay phone, I like to move around, but I also would like to sit, but not completely." These designs drew upon the ready made school of art, in which everyday objects are repurposed for the showroom floor.
The chairs also embrace Castiglioni's theory of a Principal Design Component, or PDC, which the designer has found and is building upon within his design. Castiglioni is best known for his lamps, principally for Flos.
During the fifties and sixties the Castiglioni brothers produced a remarkable number of popular designs. Their "Spalter" vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
(1956), manufactured by Rem, was made of bright red plastic and was meant to be slung across the user's back with a leather strap, like a bag. Their lamps, the minimalist "Luminator" (1955) and "Bulb" (1957), employed exposed bulbs. In 1957 they held a show entitled, "Forme e Colori nella Casa d'Oggi" (Shapes and Colours in Today's Home) at Villa Olmo in Como
Como
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
, to exhibit their series of ready made designs.
1960s
Their Snoopy Lamp of 1967 was a table lamp, indeed inspired by the cartoon character, also had a marble base, which stabilized the egg-shaped metal and glass shade. Their "Toio" (1962) lamp again used the PDC method, using a car reflector as its inspiration. Their lighting system for the Montecatini pavilion at the Milan Fair in 1962 featured cone shaped lights suspended from wires.
The Castiglionis also designed the "RR126" stereo system (1965), which was meant to be a "musical pet." The dials and controls form the shape of a face, with the speakers as ears. This design, for Brionvega, was free standing, with casters to make it mobile, and the speakers folded up when not in use, to make the design more compact.