Angelo Mangiarotti

Italian architect, sculptor and designer Angelo Mangiarotti is highly regarded for his thoughtful and controlled approach to materials. He studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in 1948 and moved to the United States in 1953. There he was a visiting professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. There he became friends with the famous architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann, all of whom influenced his work enormously.

In 1955, Mangiarotti returned to Milan and opened an architectural office with the Italian architect Bruno Morasutti. The pair designed industrial, residential and cultural institutions such as the Via Cantore skyscraper in Genoa and the Mater Misericordiae church in Milan. But the partnership eventually fell apart. Mangiarotti has lectured at a number of important schools of design and architecture in Italy and abroad. In 1989 he founded Mangiarotti & Associates, based in Tokyo. He later served as creative director of Colle Cristalleria from 1989 to 1992. In addition to his many architectural endeavours, Mangiarotti's portfolio includes a wide range of creative projects, from sculptures to products such as ashtrays, which demonstrate his mastery of traditional materials. His designs were produced by the most progressive brands of his time, including Artemide and Bernini.