Architect and designer Vico Magistretti is dead yesterday in Milan, the city where he was born in 1920 (October 6).

“Design as well as look at everyday objects with a curious eye”, used to claim Magistretti. His designs are over seventy carried out during fifty years and for the most important producers of furniture in Italy and abroad. Chairs, lamps, tables, beds, kitchens, cupboards, bookshelves, objects reinvented in terms of both use and form describe the measured and elegant style of Magistretti who over the years has received four times the Compasso d’Oro (in 1967, twice in 1979 and in 1995) and a Sedia d’Oro (in 1982).

The first design to be mass produced (by Cassina) came in 1960; the Carimate chair, initially created for the Carimate golf club. In just a short time it became the symbol of swinging London and the chair of the Beatles.

“In design what counts is the concept expressed with a sketch”, is another phrase which sums up his working method, which express the idea in such a clear and simple way that it could even be communicated by telephone. His aim? To design for everyone. In the conviction that design is a conceptual process, and has – compared to architecture – a much more direct link with reality “because it enters into people’s homes”.

Recent features published on Domus:
Auteur design. Vico Magistretti/Fiam
(from Domus 891 April 2006)
Meda+Rizzatto, Magistretti, Lovegrove, Sapper. Light Planning
(from Domus 883 July/August 2005)
Joris vs Vico
(from Domus 878 February 2005)

See also his profile on domusweb:
Vico Magistretti