Vico Magistretti

Born in 1920, Vico Magistretti was an Italian architect and industrial designer. He came from a family of architects, both his grandfather and father having been involved in large prestigious projects. In 1939, Vico Magistretti began studying architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. To avoid military service, Magistretti moved from Italy to Switzerland in the early 1940s.

He studied and taught for some time at the University of Lausanne before returning to Milan in 1945 and graduating. Immediately after graduating, Magistretti joined his father's architectural firm with Paolo Chessa. Soon after, his father passed away. Vico Magistretti continued to work in his father's firm throughout his career.

Magistretti was a driving force in Italian design and is considered one of the founders of the design phenomenon that he himself called miraculous and which, according to Magistretti himself, was made possible by the collaboration between architects and manufacturers. Magistretti collaborated with several major brands, including Artemide, Cassina, DePadova, FontanaArte, Kartell and Fritz Hansen. During his career, Magistretti gave numerous lectures at the Royal College of Art in London and eventually received the prestigious position of professor at both the Royal College of Arts in London and the Domus Academy in Milan. Many of his students saw Magistretti as the man behind perhaps the most interesting modern movement in the design world at the time. Magistretti has devoted himself to both architecture and design in the form of buildings, interiors and furnishings. Some of his last commissions were to design a house in Saint Barths in the French Antilles and in Lausanne. In 2005, a year before Magistretti passed away, he was awarded the special prize 'Abitare il tempo'.

After Vico Magistretti's death in 2006, his design studio was transformed into a museum where visitors can view his work and designs, and his work can also be seen in museums such as MoMA in New York and Victoria & Albert in London. Magistretti won the prestigious Compasso d'Oro in 1967 for the Eclisse lamp, designed for Artemide. In 1979 he received the award again for the Oluce Atollo Lamp and the design classic Maralunga. The sofa is an icon in itself and a great favourite with us at NO-GA.