Stilnovo, Italian lighting design since 1946

Milan, 1918 – Milan, 2002 / A. Castiglioni
Milan, 1913 – Milan, 1968 / P. G. Castiglioni

Architects and designers, the brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni worked together from 1944 to 1968, becoming bearers of a unique inventiveness recognized as an international symbol of successful Made in Italy. Advocates of a design strongly focused on functionality, from the 1950s the two brothers (initially three, with their older brother Livio, who left the studio in 1954) experienced an extraordinary rise. Minimalism, attention to detail, genius, and unparalleled creativity, always focused on solving a concrete problem and never on self-referentiality, are the qualities that accompanied their decades of work. Working together until the untimely passing of Pier Giacomo, the two brothers co-signed works and architectures that revolutionized the history of architecture and design. Winners of significant awards, including several Compasso d’Oro Awards (a total of 12), numerous Gold and Silver Medals at the Triennale, the subject of monographs and retrospectives worldwide (famous is the one dedicated to Achille by the MoMA in New York), they are considered among the most important and influential Italian designers of all time.

Major Recognitions
Achille Castiglioni
8 Compasso d’Oro Awards (1955, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1967, 2x 1979, 1984)
1 Compasso d’Oro Career Award (2020)
2 Grand Prizes at the Triennale di Milano (1951, 1954)
2 Gold Medals at the Triennale di Milano (1957, 1960)
2 Silver Medals at the Triennale di Milano (1957, 1963)
1 Bronze Medal at the Triennale di Milano (1947)

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni
5 Compasso d’Oro Awards (1955, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1967)
2 Grand Prizes at the Triennale di Milano (1951, 1954)
2 Gold Medals at the Triennale di Milano (1957, 1960)
2 Silver Medals at the Triennale di Milano (1957, 1963)
1 Bronze Medal at the Triennale di Milano (1947)

Milan, 1937

Antonio Macchi Cassia is undoubtedly one of the most attentive Italian designers when it comes to the balance between creativity, technological innovation, and production factors. Graduating as an engineer from the School of Mechanical Engineering in Fribourg, Switzerland, Macchi Cassia has been part of the Italian design scene since the 1960s. Twenty-five years of collaboration with Olivetti as a consultant for the Industrial Design sector helped shape his design philosophy, with one important belief: design is the rigorous search for solutions that make the most of the present. He thus interpreted his work as a profession grounded in the production process and as an intellectual exercise aimed at finding quality and effective performance, focusing primarily on products and services for our daily and collective lives. The results have proven this design philosophy right: multiple times winner of the 1st Smau Industrial Design Award, Compasso d’Oro Career Award, and his products are part of the Permanent Collection at MoMA in New York and the Design Museum at the Triennale di Milano.

Major Awards
1 Smau Industrial Design Award (1980, 1983, 1984, 1993)
1 Compasso d’Oro Career Award (2016)

Seregno, 1977

In 2004, after graduating in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano, Brian Sironi began collaborating with architects, designers, and professional craftsmen in the design field, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, carvers, and upholsterers. In 2007, he continued his education in the United States and, after returning to Italy, he founded the Brian Sironi Studio in 2009. In his work, he focuses on the connection between object and user, form and function, to improve the daily lives of people, even in small details or single gestures. Born in 1979, Brian Sironi was the youngest designer awarded at the XXII Edition of the Compasso d’Oro, and his professional path is already rich with international successes.

Main Recognitions
1 Compasso d’Oro Award (2011)
2 Good Design Award (2011-2012)
1 IF Design – Gold Award (2010)
1 Red Dot Design Award (2011)
1 Design of Astonishment Award (2009) – Young&Design Competition, Rima Editrice, Milan
Honorable Mention in I.D. Annual Design Review (2010)

Casalmaggiore, 1925 – Milan, 1988 / D.Aroldi
Milan, 1936 – Milan, 2011 / C.Aroldi

Born in 1925 in Casalmaggiore (CR), Danilo Aroldi moved to Milan with his family in 1936, the year his brother Corrado was born. During the 1950s and 1960s, the city of Milan became one of Europe’s most vibrant centers for graphic design, advertising, and industrial design. It was in Milan, in the early 1960s, that the two brothers founded the Danilo and Corrado Aroldi – Architecture and Industrial Design studio, signing some product design projects that are included in the permanent collections of the MoMA in New York and the Triennale di Milano, selected for the Compasso d’Oro, and exhibited in shows around the world, in France, Russia, Turkey, Japan, and the United States.

Davide Oppizzi, a Swiss designer, is the founder of the studio DCUBE design espaces lumière SA, an agency specializing in high-end architecture, design, and lighting projects based in Geneva. Highly versatile, his work spans from lighting to furniture, from interior design to high-tech. His style, often inspired by nature, nods to industrial design with particular attention to sustainability and the experimentation of materials, balancing technology and aesthetics in every creation. Prestigious brands worldwide have commissioned Davide Oppizzi with projects that reflect the connection between humans and their surrounding nature. Often at the heart of his work and research, lighting design is one of the Swiss designer’s greatest passions, and for years, he has successfully applied its principles in innovative projects and products for large international brands.

Main Recognitions
1 Ideat Design Lighting (2021)
1 A’Design Award (2018)
1 MIAW Award (2017)
1 Red Dot Award (2016)
1 London Design Award – Silver (2015)
1 Interior Design Best of Year (2014)
1 ARCHIPRODUCTS Awards best of 2014
1 PIA Product Innovation Design Award (2013)

Innsbruck, 1917 – Milan, 2007

Architect, designer, and photographer, founder of the famous design and architecture collective known as the “Memphis Group” and active between 1981 and 1987, Ettore Sottsass Jr. managed to express, through his style and production, the emerging ideas of Anti-design, openly criticizing the style and common taste of the era and reacting through almost total experimentation in materials, forms, and colors. His creativity and restless genius made the fortunes of many brands, particularly Olivetti, earning him very important recognitions, including three Compasso d’Oro. Many major exhibitions have been dedicated to him: in 1976, at the Cooper Hewitt in New York and the International Design Zentrum in Berlin, at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1994 and 2003, at the Design Gallery Milan in 1988, 1993, and 1995, at the Suntory Museum in Ōsaka in 2000, at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Cologne in 2004, and at the MART in Rovereto in 2005. His works are preserved in the most prestigious museum institutions worldwide.

Major Awards
3 Compasso d’Oro Awards (1959, 1970, 1989)
1 IF Design Award (1994)
1 Red Dot Design Award (2007)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2001)
Gold Medal for Merit in Culture and Arts (2005)

Palazzolo dello Stella, 1927 – Milan, 2012

Protagonist of the leading figures in contemporary architecture, highly appreciated worldwide for her creative talent and, in particular, for her extraordinary ability to recover the cultural values of historical heritage and the urban environment. Particularly dedicated to the theme of exhibition design and architectural restoration, throughout her long career, she won numerous awards, including the prestigious Imperial Prize for Architecture awarded by the Japan Art Association of Tokyo. Shortly before her death in Milan at the age of 84, she was awarded a career prize presented by the Triennale. In an official statement of condolence, the then President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, remembered Gae Aulenti as “a leading figure in the history of contemporary architecture, highly appreciated worldwide for her creative talent and, in particular, for her extraordinary ability to recover the cultural values of historical heritage and the urban environment.” In testimony to her enormous artistic legacy and in her memory for future generations, the large circular square located in the center of the Unicredit Tower complex in Milan was named after her.

Main recognitions Imperial Prize (1991)
Marble Architectural Awards (2007)
Gold Medal for Career at the Triennale di Milano (2012)

Milan, 1937

Student of Gio Ponti, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, and Vittorio Gregotti, he graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano. As an independent professional, he has been able to express himself in the most diverse fields of design: from architecture, urban planning, urban furniture to product design. Prestigious projects signed by him have been realized in Milan, Rome, Madonna di Campiglio, Porto Cervo, Benghazi, Misurata, Tripoli, Jeddah, Paris, Cannes, Lyon, Yaoundé, London, and New York.

Major Awards
VIA Award conferred by the French Association of Industry and Design (2007)

Milan, 1930 – Milan, 1971

Cesare “Joe” Colombo, with his style defined as “futuristic,” determined by original shapes inspired by diverse sources, dynamic furnishing systems, and the use of metals and bright colors, helped to change everyday life, the habits and customs of Italians and beyond.
Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, he initially pursued a career in the artistic field, joining the Nuclear Movement and participating in several exhibitions with artists like Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo, Lucio Fontana, and Bruno Munari. He began focusing on architecture, interior design, and product design starting in 1961 and, three years later, opened a design studio in Milan. This marked the beginning of a career filled with success and prestigious recognitions, unfortunately interrupted at the age of only 41 due to a heart attack. Colombo contributed to redefining the professional figure of the industrial designer in Italy during the 1960s: in each of his projects, a completely innovative interest in the kinetic dimension and the change and transformability of objects and spaces over time stands out. Even today, nearly fifty years after his death, his most iconic products continue to amaze.

Major Awards
2 Compasso d’Oro Awards (1967, 1970)
1 Gold Medal at the Triennale di Milano (1964)
1 First Prize at the SMAU in Milan (1971)

Milan, 1932 – Milan, 1991 / J.De Pas
Milan, 1935 / D.D’Urbino
Milan, 1936 / P.Lomazzi

Since the founding of their “Studio De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi” (or Studio DDL) in 1966, the three designers have distinguished themselves primarily for their unconventional pop-inspired style, recognizable in many of their furniture pieces. They collaborated with the most prominent companies in the furniture industry, winning the prestigious Compasso d’Oro Award in 1979. The production of Studio DDL is documented in the historical literature on Italian design and in major international publications on architecture and industrial design. Numerous works are part of the permanent design collections in various museums around the world and have been selected for traveling exhibitions on Italian design. The studio has operated and continues to operate even after the death of De Pas, working on architecture, objects, installations, furniture design, and urban planning, combining its design activity with cultural and educational endeavors.

Major Awards
1 Compasso d’Oro Award (1979)
1 Compasso d’Oro Career Award (awarded to D’Urbino and Lomazzi, 2018)

Milan, 1911 – Lierna, 1979

Famous Italian architect and designer, Livio is the oldest of the Castiglioni brothers, the firstborn son of the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni. He graduated in 1936 from the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, and four years later, in 1938, he began his career in the field of architecture and product design with his brother Pier Giacomo and his classmate Luigi Caccia Dominioni. Co-founder of ADI in 1956 along with his brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo (the Association for Industrial Design, of which he was president from 1959 to 1960) and creator of the Compasso d’Oro Award, in 1960 Livio Castiglioni decided to go freelance and dedicate himself to lighting design, working with the most renowned lighting brands of the time, including Stilnovo. At the same time, he collaborated with Phonola and, for two decades, with Brionvega. In 1972, he opened a studio with his son Piero, intensifying his interest in lighting design and signing important lighting design projects for exhibitions, art galleries, shops, and hotels.

Treviso, 1976

Born in Treviso on November 28, 1976, Mirco Crosatto is establishing himself as one of the most capable and innovative product designers in the lighting field, always attentive to the latest trends and technological developments in the world of lighting technology. At Linea Light Group since 1997, today, in addition to being the Head of the R&D Department, he designs and personally oversees the evolution of many products within the company. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various designers and prominent figures and constantly interacts with the great Masters of Made in Italy who have made the history of Stilnovo and/or their respective heirs in the reissues of their greatest successes. For Stilnovo, Mirco Crosatto has designed several significant creations, famous also for the International Awards they have received. Such as Reflexio, which won the prestigious IF Design Award in 2018; or Lama, Mr.Magoo, and the Tablet floor lamp, which won the Red Dot Award. Among the most appreciated products on the market is the Diphy lamp, awarded the Red Dot Award in 2017, included in the AIT Trend the same year, and honored with the Compasso d’Oro ADI 2018 Mention of Honor; not least, the semi-spherical Demì lamp and the sound-absorbing Derby lamp, both awarded the Red Dot Award in 2019.

Major Awards
1 Mention of Honor at the Compasso d’Oro Award (2018)
5 Red Dot Awards (2011, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
1 IF Design Award (2018)

Lierna, 1944

Pietro Maria Castiglioni, known as Piero, graduated in architecture in Milan in 1970 and has dedicated almost his entire career to lighting design, overseeing the lighting design of buildings, art galleries, museums, urban areas, public and exterior lighting, private residences, and showrooms.
“Electrician before architect,” as he likes to define himself, Piero Castiglioni is now considered one of the leading global figures in Lighting Design. His success is the direct result of years of field research, thanks to a solid technical-scientific culture, an empirical approach, and extraordinary curiosity. Initially collaborating with his father Livio, whom he joined in 1972 and from whom he inherited a passion for light, his decades of work in both design and product development have significantly contributed to enhancing the importance and recognition of the role of lighting designer. He has challenged many common practices and proposed concepts more aligned with contemporary dimensions, aware that light can indeed be thought of in a completely different way. More than a thousand lighting projects around the world bear Piero Castiglioni’s signature. Just to mention a few: the Musée d’Orsay, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, the Sala dei Corazzieri in the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Spasa na Krovi in St. Petersburg, the Garibaldi Complex in Porta Nuova in Milan, the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, the Musée de Bretagne – Champs Libres in Rennes, and the Opéra Bastille in Paris.

Main Recognitions
Award “Design de Ambientes 98/99
Award ECC Design Award (2019)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2020)
AIDI Award Light 2021

Venice, 1971 / Tito Toso
Venice, 1973 / Pio Toso

The brothers Pio and Tito Toso were both born in Venice. They also graduated in architecture in Venice in 1998. In 1996, they opened the design studio PIO&TITOTOSO. They work in the field of architecture, realizing numerous projects both nationally and internationally, and participate in various competitions. They also collaborate in the field of furniture and design, working with major companies in lighting and furniture. They design stands, exhibitions, shops, offices, and warehouses for various companies, managing their image and graphics. Pio and Tito Toso have received numerous awards, including the “Design Plus” in 2016, the “Good Design Award” in 2009, and several Red Dot Design Awards. They have participated in exhibitions in Europe and the United States.

Major recognitions
1 Design Plus (2016)
3 Red Dot Award (2012, 2015, 2017)
1 Good Design Award (2009)

Munich, 1932 – Milan, 2015

German by birth, but universally considered one of the leading figures in Made in Italy design: much of Richard Sapper’s award-winning career is indeed linked to Milan, where from 1958 onwards, for over half a century, he changed the way design was understood with his unconventional style and his unyielding curiosity. There are numerous projects left as a legacy by the genius from Munich, such as Halley, one of the very first attempts to implement LED technology into a design lamp. To commemorate Sapper’s great contribution, he received 10 Compasso d’Oro awards from 1960 to 1998, plus a Compasso d’Oro for his career in 2014.

Major Recognitions
10 Compasso d’Oro Awards (1960, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1987, 1991, 1995, x2 1998)
1 Compasso d’Oro for Career (2014)

Kunitachi, 1948

Native of Kunitachi, Tokyo, and initially devoted to painting, in Italy he discovers his vocation for product design. Starting in the 1980s, he begins his career as a designer, excelling particularly in lighting and creating icons that still amaze today for their beauty and contemporaneity. He will always alternate his presence between Italy and Japan, working – among others – precisely for Stilnovo, with which today he rekindles a thread that was never broken, in the sign of design continuity with the many masterpieces of the past created for the Milanese brand.

Major Recognitions
18 IF Design Awards (1984, x3 1991, 1992, 1993, x2 1994, 1995, 1999, 2004, x6 2005, 2007)
2 GOOD DESIGN – Ministry of Industry Award, Japan (1989, 1996)
“Certificat d’exellence” at the International Interior Design Fair, Montréal.

Linea Light Group, world leader in LED lighting, acquired Stilnovo in 2019, with the goal of relaunching the brand in the contemporary world and continuing a history that began over 70 years ago. With the pragmatic and innovative approach that characterizes both Stilnovo and Linea Light Group, the project involves the re-edition of the magnificent icons of the past and the involvement of new designers for the development of future “lighting fixtures.”

Naples, 1936 | Paolo Viola
Palermo, 1921 – Milan, 2007 | Giuseppe Vito Oliveri
Milan, 1931 – Milan, 2019 | Alessandro Mendini

In 1947, Giuseppe Vito Oliveri, known as “Mario,” started his activity at Marcello Nizzoli’s studio on Via Rossini 3 in Milan. Together with Nizzoli, they developed important projects for Olivetti and the ENI group. When Nizzoli left the studio in 1965, Mario Oliveri founded, together with Alessandro Mendini and Paolo Viola, the Nizzoli Associati Studio. The studio’s headquarters, the legendary Nizzoli atelier, continues to be a place of experimentation and creativity. It was here that Alessandro Mendini began his career, a path that would later see him become a renovator of Italian industrial design, internationally awarded, director of many architecture magazines, and author of prestigious architectural projects and iconic products over time. Paolo Viola, an engineer but also an urban planner and architect, focused on urban design, buildings for culture, and especially ports and waterfronts, which became the great passion of his professional life. Among the studio’s works, one of the most notable is the urban planning project presented in 1967 for the international competition for the southern district of the city of Bratislava, which earned an Honorable Mention from the jury.

Main recognitions
3 Compasso d’Oro Awards (Alessandro Mendini – 1970, 1981, 2014)
1 European Prize for Architecture (Alessandro Mendini – 2014)
1 European Prize for Architecture (Alessandro Mendini – 2014)