Anna Castelli Ferrieri

The Italian architect and industrial designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri studied architecture at Milan Polytechnic from 1938 until 1943. In 1943 she married Giulio Castelli, a chemical engineer. He founded Kartell in 1949 to make high-quality designer objects of plastic. In 1946-47 Anna Castelli Ferrieri was editor of the architecture magazine "Casabella costruzioni". In 1946 she founded an architecture practice. In 1949 Anna Castelli Ferrieri took part for the first time in the Congrès Internationale d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), of which she was also a co-organizer. From 1952 she was a member of the Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica. From 1955 to 1960 Anna Castelli Ferrieri was a correspondent for "Architectural Design" magazine. In 1956 she co-founded the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI). Between 1959 and 1973 Anna Castelli Ferrieri collaborated with the architect Ignazio Gardella on several architectural projects, primarily urban planning projects in Milan, Turin, Genoa, and other cities. Other important architecture projects engaged in by Anna Castelli Ferrieri include the Kartell company headquarters in Binasco (1966) and buildings for the carmaker Alfa Romeo in Arese (1970-72). Anna Castelli Ferrieri also worked in industrial design from 1965, designing objects for Kartell as well as Apelli e Varesio, Artex, Lanerossi, Nirvana, Oltolinie, Sambonet, and Ycami. In 1966 Anna Castelli Ferrieri became a design consultant with Kartell. Experimenting with different kinds of plastic, Anna Castelli Ferrieri designed many innovative designer objects. Her stackable container elements, "4970/84", aus ABS-Kunststoff (1967) are made of ABS plastic. The Castelli Ferrieri "4822/44" stool (1979) represents the first successful combination of metal and polyurethane, which ensures stability even when seat furniture has longer legs.