Beautiful Gestures From A Designer

Design an agent of change says renowned and fame Italian architect Anna Castelli Ferrieri

Although a committed modernist, Milan architect and designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri has not subscribed to the modernist maxim that "form follows function". Instead, the legendary designer, perhaps best known internationally for helping to legitimize plastic in the 1960s as a material for domestic objects, has put a premium on beauty throughout her remarkable career. "It is not true that useful is beautiful," says Castelli Ferrieri. "It is beautiful that is useful. Why? Because it changes the world".
High ideals and aspirations, it seems, have always been a part of the life and work of Castelli Ferrieri. Her father Enzo Ferrieri, a prominent journalist, established Milan's Il Convegno theatre and an artistic circle that included James Joyce, Thomas Mann and Maurice Ravel. In 1943, she was one of the first women to graduate with an architecture degree from the Politecnico di Milano. That same year she married childhood sweetheart Giulio Castelli, who six years later would found Italian manufacturer Kartell.
With the respected modernist architect Franco Albini as her mentor and the task for a new generation of architects to rebuild Italy after the second World War, Castelli Ferrieri had a rigourous approach and an important canvas from the start of her career. "(Albini) trained me to feel the responsibility, above all moral responsibility, which you take on when you dedicate yourself to architecture or to design, which is a decision very high up on the ladder of human activities," she has said. Recognition for her work came early on in her career when she earned a gold medal at the Milan Triennale of 1947 for her design of a steel tube armchair and a child's bed. But those early years of her work were primarily concerned with urban planning and housing designs.
Castelli Ferrieri began collaborating with fellow architect Ignazio Gardella in 1959 and their professional partnership yielded significant projects such as Kartell's corporate headquarters at Binasco, Milan (1966 and 1973) and the engineering offices of Alfa Romeo at Arese. Castelli Ferrieri also designed municipal buildings such as the Pordenone city hall (1963-73).
In the 1960s she also turned her attention to industrial design. Her husband's company had been originally established on the potential of new plastics manufacturing and Castelli Ferrieri helped to further this cause with designs such as a rounded modular storage unit made of ABS plastic. Daring and innovative in the mid 60s, its continued production to this day by Kartell is testament to Castelli Ferrieri's forward thinking. Her work is included in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the London Design Museum and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. As well, her designs have been selected on many occasions over the years in Italy's prestigious Compasso d'Oro competition.
Despite an increasing interest in product design as her career progressed, Castelli Ferrieri remained mindful of the environmental impact of designed objects. She says she is "conscious of the responsibility I take upon myself whenever I add a new presence to an already overcrowded physical world. I always ask myself whether I am faithful to my goals, which consist in some way bettering the quality of our life, without betraying the ethical quality of my work". Like her father, Castelli Ferrieri has also worked as a journalist and she has been active in professional design associations and human rights efforts.
Castelli Ferrieri began her career with opportunities to remake her corner of the world and beyond, and though tough realities have often intruded, the veteran architect and designer has remained optimistic about the power of beauty - and the individual. "The world can be changed," she says. "Each of us is changing it continuously. A gesture is enough. Especially a simple gesture that costs you much."

Publication Date: 2003-08-10
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3026