Vico Magistretti

Milanese architect and master designer Vico Magistretti (1920–2006) was a towering titan of 20th-century Italian design, celebrated for distilling complex industrial mechanics into pure, unforgettable geometric archetypes. Graduating in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1945, Magistretti championed the concept of creating objects so conceptually simple they could be described over the telephone. Winner of multiple Compasso d'Oro awards, Magistretti authored immortal icons for Italy’s greatest manufacturers. For Oluce, he created the Atollo lamp (1977)—an elemental composition of cylinder, cone, and glowing hemisphere—and the Pascal lamp. For Cassina, he conceived the transformative Maralunga sofa, featuring an internal bicycle chain that flips the headrest, and the Sinbad lounge. For Artemide, he engineered the molded plastic Selene chair and the Eclisse table lamp.