Anna Castelli Ferrieri

Anna Castelli Ferrieri (1918-2006) was an important Italian architect and designer. Daughter of Enzo Castelli, an exponent of the Milanese intellectual bourgeoisie of the early twentieth century, Anna orients her studies towards architecture, graduating from the Polytechnic of Milan under Franco Albini. The rationalism of Albini, in whose studio she also works for a few years after graduating, is the main point of reference for her style throughout her career. As an architect she concentrates mainly on the creation of interiors, associating herself from 1959 to 1973 with Ignazio Gardella; among her most important works there are the Alfa Romeo offices in Arese and the Kartell offices in Binasco. Her career as a designer is instead strongly influenced by the profession of her husband, the chemical engineer Giulio Castelli, founder of the Kartell plastics factory: this gave Anna Castelli Ferrieri the opportunity to develop the ever new possibilities of a continuously evolving material, giving life to enormously successful creations such as the 4953-54-55-56 series of stackable containers (now marketed under the name Componibili and which have become one of the great symbols of the company) or the 4870 chairs. Starting in the 1990s she extends her activity also to other brands, collaborating for example with Sambonet, Arflex and Ycami. She won, among other things, two Compassi d'Oro (1987,1984) and a Gold Medal at the Triennale (1947).