Engineering:Pier Giacomo Castiglioni

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Short description: Italian architect and furniture designer (1913–1968)

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni
Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.png
Born22 April 1913
Milan, Italy
Died27 November 1968 (1968-11-28) (aged 55)
Milan
NationalityItalian
EducationPolitecnico di Milano
Known forArchitecture, design
Spouse(s)Maria Coduri de Cartosio
AwardsCompasso d'Oro
Websitepiergiacomocastiglioni.it

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (22 April 1913–27 November 1968) was an Italian architect and designer.[1]

Early life and education

With brother Achille
Pier Giacomo Castiglioni receiving the Compasso d'Oro award in 1955

Castiglioni was born on 22 April 1913 in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. He was the second son of the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni and his wife Livia Bolla. Castiglioni studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and graduated in 1937.[1] His elder brother Livio and younger brother Achille were also architects.[1]

Castiglioni married Maria Coduri de Cartosio on 30 December 1942.[1]

Work and career

In 1937[1] or 1938[2] he started an architectural design practice with his brother Livio and Luigi Caccia Dominioni.[2] Amongst the designs produced by the practice were the first Italian bakelite radio for Phonola.[3][4] The studio closed in 1940.

After the Second World War he and Livio worked with their younger brother Achille, who had also graduated in architecture in 1944.[2] Much of their work was in product and exhibition design, but they also carried out a number of architectural projects,[5] including the reconstruction in 1952–53 of the Palazzo della Permanente (it), which had been destroyed by bombing in 1943.[1]

Livio Castiglioni left the practice in 1952[2] or 1953.[1] From then until Pier Giacomo died he and Achille worked as a team; most of their designs are not attributable to either one of them.[1][2]

Products designed by the Castiglioni brothers in the post-war years included the "Turbino",[6] "Luminator",[7] "Toio",[8] and "Arco" lamps for Flos S.p.A. (company) (it), the "Spalter" vacuum cleaner,[9] and a number of audio devices for Brionvega.[10] Working alone,[citation needed] Pier Giacomo designed the "Mezzadro" stool for Zanotta based Marcel Duchamp's concept of "ready made".[11] However, it was not manufactured until 1971, three years after Castiglioni's death.[3]

In 1956 he was one of the founding members of the ADI (Italian design association) (it) in Milan and also taught life drawing at the Politecnico di Milano from 1964 to 1968.[1]

Legacy

Via Fratelli Castiglioni Milano.jpg

Reflecting on his friendship with the Castiglionis, the designer Massimo Vignelli said:

"In reality, the Castiglioni brothers were one person. Symbiosis of thought, creative ability, inspiration and execution were an integral part of their being. Talking to one of them or all three of them was the same, they were completely interchangeable, same voice, same accent, same grin, same laughter, same gestures. They were the Castiglioni, like their work, indivisible fruit of the same research, of the same passion, of a great ability to transform the world around us into a new memorable gesture."[12][better source needed]

In 2014 the city of Milan named a street after the three Castiglioni brothers (Via Fratelli Castiglioni).[13]

Gallery of works

  • Tabletop radio designed for Phonola (1939)

  • Architectural drawing of San Gabriele Arcangelo in Mater Dei (1956–1959)

  • Perspective drawing of San Gabriele Arcangelo in Mater Dei

  • Milan Triennale X, Industrial Design exposition (1954)

  • Another view of Milan Triennale X

  • Another view of Milan Triennale X

  • Spalter vacuum cleaner (1956)

  • Spalter (technical drawing)

  • Sanluca armchair designed in 1959 for Gavina (drawing showing construction detail)

  • RR 126 radiogram designed for Brionvega

  • Sella stool designed for Zanotta

  • Mezzadro stool designed for Zanotta

  • Drawing of Arco lamp designed for Flos (1962)

  • Analog Piped Radio receiver designed for Brionvega (1967–1970)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Giuliana Ricci (1979). Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo (in Italian). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 22. Roma: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed October 2018.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 William Hamilton (5 December 2002). Achille Castiglioni, 84, Italian Home Designer, Is Dead. New York Times. Accessed January 2016.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gino Moliterno, Gino (2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture, pp. 139–140. Routledge. ISBN:1134758774
  4. ↑ "Phonola – FIMI Castiglioni 547 Tipo L – radioricevitore". https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/scienza-tecnologia/schede/ST140-00022/. 
  5. ↑ Bergamasco, Porzia (2013-09-05). "100 volte Castiglioni. Una mostra a Vicenza ricorda Pier Giacomo Castiglioni nel centenario della nascita" (in it-IT). https://living.corriere.it/archivio-tendenze/gallery/100-castiglioni-vicenza-401625529244-gallery/. 
  6. ↑ "lampada da tavolo TUBINO" (in it). https://www.fondazioneachillecastiglioni.it/progetto/oggetto-4/. 
  7. ↑ "Achille Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Luminator Floor Lamp. 1955 | MoMA" (in en). https://www.moma.org/collection/works/2888. 
  8. ↑ "Achille Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Toio Floor Lamp. 1962 | MoMA" (in en). https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3870. 
  9. ↑ Museum of Modern Art. Spalter Electric Vacuum Cleaner. Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo and Achille (1956)
  10. ↑ "i Castiglioni" (in it-it). https://www.brionvega.it/radiofonografo-scheda/i-castiglioni.html. 
  11. ↑ "Design Museum's Objects of Desire exhibition explores "what surrealism is and why it matters now"" (in en). 2022-11-23. https://www.dezeen.com/2022/11/23/surrealism-objects-of-desire-exhibition-design-museum-video/. 
  12. ↑ Vignelli, Massimo. "Massimo Vignelli – Wikiquote" (in it). https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli. 
  13. ↑ "Via Fratelli Castiglioni in Milano" (in it). 29 November 2001. https://www.nuove-strade.it/lombardia/milano/via-fratelli-castiglioni. 

External links

Castiglioni family portrait with brothers Achille, Livio, and Pier Giacomo (1922)




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