Achille Castiglioni
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Achille Castiglioni (Milan, 1918-2002) was a renowned industrial designer. He was often inspired by everyday things and made use of ordinary materials. He uses the minimal amount of materials while creating forms with a maximum effect.
[edit] Biography
Achille Castiglioni studied architecture at the Polytechnic University Milan and set up a design office in 1944 with his brothers, Livio Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (Livio left in 1952) which would become one of the most witty, elegant and innovative partnerships in modern design. They 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: "Start from scratch. Stick to common sense. Know your goals and means."
In the 1950's the Castiglioni brothers publicly cemented their commitment to redesigning objects, with their tractor seat stool, Mezzadro and their Sella 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. In 1956, Castiglioni founded the Association for Industrial Design, and in 1957 they held a show entitled, "Forme e Colori nella Casa d'Oggi" at the Olmo Villa in Como, to exhibit their series of ready made designs.
During the fifties and sixties the Castiglioni brothers produced a remarkable number of popular designs. Their "Spalter" vacuum cleaner (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, while their "Arco" (1962) was a floor lamp with a long, curved arm extending eight feet from the marble base which had to be moved "by two people inserting a broomstick through the hole in the base." Their "Snoopy Lamp" (1967) 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 turned to 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 Castiglinis also designed the "RR126" stereo system (1965) which was meant to be a "musical pet," and was considered to be one of his "Expressionistic Objects." 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.
Castiglioni taught for many years, first at the Polytechnic of Turin, in 1969 and later leading a class in Industrial Design at the Architectural Polytechnic of Milan, to a group of several thousand students. He has exhibited his designs at every Milan Triennial since 1947 and has received seven Compasso d'Oro awards. Castiglioni's method, to have "a constant and consistent way of designing, not a style," led him to help create new products to restore Italy's quality of life in the post-war years and to innovate upon the household object.
Most of Castilglioni's products are design classics and are still in production under licence. The MoMA has his most important designs in its permanent collection.
[edit] Family
Castiglioni has a daughter Monica Castiglioni who is a jewellery designer. She owns the design store Anthias in Milan, she lives and works in Milan and New York.
