VICO MAGISTRETTI (06.10.1920 – 19.09.2006)
Vico Magistretti was an Italian architect, as well as furniture and industrial designer. For many years he was a leading figure of Milan Rationalism, and developed timeless solutions for technical and formal problems.
Magistretti was born on 6 October 1920 in Milan. The son of an architect, he began his own architectural studies in 1939 at the Polytechnic University of Milan. In 1943, he left Italy during his military service, moving to Switzerland, where he attended architecture courses at the university in Lausanne.
It was in Switzerland that Magistretti encountered the architects Ernesto Nathan Rogers, a key moment in his intellectual and professional formation. 1945 saw Magistretti move back to Milan, where he graduated from the polytechnic. He went on to work with the architect Paolo Chessa in his father Pier Giulio’s firm.
Originally involved in city planning for Milan, Magistretti migrated in the 1950s over to the industrial design of furniture and lamps, working primarily for manufacturers Artemide, Cassina, Fritz Hansen and Kartell. One of his most celebrated pieces is the Carimate chair for Cassina, which, over the years, has become a bestseller. Magistretti’s work has been exhibited internationally in many of the most important museums, from Europe and the USA to Japan. Several pieces can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
http://www.vicomagistretti.it/en/
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