Achille Castiglioni

One of the preem­i­nent voices in post-war Italian design, Achille Castiglioni worked closely with his brother, Pier Giacomo, to dream up prod­ucts informed by their mutual sense of curios­ity, humor, and wonder.

Their approach resulted in prod­ucts that incor­po­rated playful forms and refer­ences — such as their Mezzadro stool for Zanotta that was made with a tractor seat, or their Snoopy table lamp for Flos inspired by the famous cartoon char­ac­ter. The duo was commit­ted to pushing the limits of indus­trial design, a goal they achieved through constant exper­i­men­ta­tion and a will­ing­ness to embrace unex­pected methods of produc­tion. Achille and Pier Giacomo often incor­po­rated util­i­tar­ian mate­ri­als and ready­made objects into their works, from the afore­men­tioned tractor seat to fishing rods, car head­lights, and more.

A long­stand­ing rela­tion­ship with FLOS led to the creation of many of the design­ers’ most famous works, such as the 1962 Arco lamp, a widely copied fixture that is consid­ered to be one of the hall­marks of midcen­tury indus­trial design. Achille Castiglioni created nearly 150 objects in his life­time, and many prod­ucts are still in production today.