Vico Magistretti

"The Vico,VicoDuo and VicoSolo family of furniture by Fritz Hansen was designed by the famous Italian architect Vico Magistretti. The series unmistakably bears Magistretti's signature, easily identified by organic lines that are lively and warm. The Vico chair is represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Design Museum in London. VicoDuo has won several prestigious awards, and even the youngest family member has already received a design award.

EARLY SUCCESS
Vico Magistretti was born in Milan and educated at ""Champ Universi-taire Italien de Lausanne"" where he graduated as an architect in 1945. As one of the architects of his generation referred to as the ""modernistic maestros"" Magistretti was educated by Ernesto Nathan Rogers, who greatly influenced the Italian architectural sphere of the 50s. ""He not only introduced us to architecture, but to culture alto-gether"", says Magistretti. In 1946, Magistretti participated in RIMA, an Italian furniture fair which was the place for innovative thinking in Italian architecture. RIMA built the foundation of his later worldwide career.

TRADITIONS REVISITED
Magistretti has followed a life-long passion for existing objects, furniture and artefacts that serve a certain purpose. A ladder, for in-stance, would be turned into bookshelves. Magistretti prefers sim-plicity and modesty in his easy, elegant form idiom based on estab-lished and natural shapes which he then cross-breeds with contem-porary construction principles and materials. He highly respects and has great knowledge of values and traditions - historically important events are often vital sources of inspiration to him.

During the 50s Magistretti focused on architecture as a whole. By the end of the decade, however, his interest shifted. Italy was in the process of change as industrialization accelerated and had started to exercise more influence. An entire new set of possibilities emerged.

In 1959, Magistretti designed the chair ""Carimate"" for the interior of a golf club restaurant, which was an innovative alternative to the rural, classic wooden chair with a cane seat. While obviously in-spired by ""Scandinavian Design"" (the Danish designers Kaare Klint and Finn Juhl), the Carimate chair asserts its own personality with a red lacquer frame. The Carimate chair went into industrial production in 1962 when Magistretti teamed with Mr. Cesare Cassina, an Italian furniture manufacture. This marked the beginning of one of the greatest and most productive careers in furniture and product de-sign. Today, Vico Magistretti is one of the world's most recognized and well-known designers.

NEW FORMS - ALL OVER THE WORLD
Magistretti's buildings are located mainly in Italy, but his furniture, lamps and other designs have spread all over the world. His im-mense success is illustrated by the fact that approx. 80% of his products designed since the beginning of the 60s are still in produc-tion.

CONTINUOUS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Over the years Vico Magistretti has received numerous awards and his products are exhibited at museums all over the world. He has worked together with prestigious companies such as Alias, Ar-temide, Cassina, De Padova, Fiat, Knoll International and Rosen-thal. He is an honorary visiting professor at the Royal College of Art in London and has his own design studio in Milan.

VICO MAGISTRETTI FURNITURE MANUFACTURED BY FRITZ HANSEN
VICO (1994) - conference chairs and tables.
VICODUO (1997) chairs and tables.
VICOSOLO (1999) armless stacking chairs.



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