ANGELO MANGIAROTTI
Angelo Mangiarotti (b. 1921 Milan – d. 2012 Milan) was an Italian architect and designer. He graduated in 1948 with a degree in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano. In 1953, Mangiarotti served as a visiting lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology. During his time in the United States, Mangiarotti became acquainted with Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Upon his return to Italy in 1955, he opened an architecture studio with Bruno Morassutti and designed large projects such as the Via Cantore Skyscraper (1955) in Genova and the Mater Misericordiae Church (1956-57) in Milan. In 1960 Mangiarotti opened a solo studio where his most notable furniture designs were created using masterfully designed sculptural and functional stone, bronze and wood for tables, consoles and bookcases. He joined forces with Skipper and produced the Incas console table (1978), Estral shelving system (‘81), marble dining tables, Central table (‘85), and the Clizia bench (‘90).
Mangiarotti also collaborated with various manufacturing companies such as Klein and More to produce the space-age Maritime ceramic clock (1956) — which was originally designed for a ship — the iconic Secticon Model T1 table clocks (‘60), the Model 1110 lounge chair for Cassina (‘64), the Lesbo and Saffo lamps for Artemide (1966/’67), the Giogali modular lighting system for Vistosi (‘67), the Fratelli Brambilla ceramic ashtrays (‘68), the Aida table lamp for VeArt (‘69), a series of office furniture sets for Molteni, and several glass sculptural vases for Vistosi.
Mangiarotti continued to be active in academia and in 1953 and ‘54 served as visiting professor at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1963 and ‘64, he taught a course at the Istituto Superiore di Disegno Industriale in Venice. Additionally, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii in 1970, at the École Politecnique Fédérale de Lausanne in ‘74, and at the University of Adelaide in ‘76. In 1982, he held the role of adjunct professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Palermo, and in ‘83 he served as a professor at the Department of Composition at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence. In 1989 and ‘90, he served as a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture in Milan and in ‘97 he worked as an adjunct professor, teaching a course in industrial design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano.
Angelo Mangiarotti’s designs received many awards throughout his professional life. Among these are the Domus Formica award (1956), the American Industrial Partners award (‘72), the gold medal in architecture by the Accademia della Torre of Carrara (‘98), and a dedicated solo exhibition at Calenzano’s Design Museum in May 2010.
