Antonia Astori

Antonia Astori (1940-) is an Italian designer and entrepreneur remembered in particular for her work with Driade, a company she founded in 1968 together with her brother Enrico Astori and her sister-in-law Adelaide Acerbi. Graduated in Industrial and Visual Design at the Athenaeum in Lausanne, Antonia has focused much of her career on the creation of modular systems capable of relating to the environment in a dynamic way, often based on square modules with clean geometries enlivened with colored inserts as in the Oikos I series (1972), which later evolved into the Kaos (1986) and Pantos (1993) models. She also designed a successful kitchen model for Driade (the Chef line, 1978) and numerous furnishings and accessories still in production today. Another area of specialization is interior design, practiced both within Driade – he personally supervised the design of many trade fair stands and Driade stores around the world, as well as the company headquarters in Piacenza – and on his own, with projects for homes and villas or in the retail sector such as the boutiques of the Marithé & François Girbaud brand in Paris, Brussels and North America. In 2004 he also associated his son Nicola De Ponti with his design studio, with whom he created appreciated creations for brands such as Oluce and Tubes Radiatori.