Luigi Massoni

Luigi Massoni (1930-2013), an Italian architect and designer, made a fundamental contribution to the identity of some of the major brands that have now become standard-bearers of Italian style in the world. Active since the 1950s, after studying at the Milan Polytechnic, he played an important role in promoting design through the magazine “Forma”, which he founded and directed from 1962 onwards. His first product to go into production was a shaker designed for Alessi in 1957, now part of the permanent collection of the MoMA in New York. He was the art director of Boffi for a long time, a brand for which he also designed the famous Xila kitchen (1972), the brand’s undisputed bestseller for decades. In the 1960s he also started an important collaboration for the Guzzini group, designing various products for them in areas ranging from lighting to household tableware and also acting as a communications consultant: it was he who introduced the culture of design to the company, sowing the seeds of a process that over the years would lead the small Harvey Guzzini to become the current iGuzzini, a group ranked among the world leaders in lighting technology. Other brands to which he gave an important contribution starting from the 1960s were Poltrona Frau, at the time in search of an identity more decidedly linked to design after a few dark years of little success, Gallotti&Radice, Nazareno Gabrielli. One of his most ambitious projects was the Centro Forme showroom in his hometown of Cermenate, characterised by an original dome shape and conceived by him as a space capable of going beyond the concept of traditional furniture retail.