Antonio Citterio

Italian architect and designer

Antonio Citterio (born in Meda, Italy, 1950) is one of the leading Italian contemporary product designers and has made many successful contributions to major international furniture and design companies, such as B&B Italia & Maxalto, Flos, Kartell, Vitra, and Hermès.

Born in Meda, a town near Milan, Italy, in 1950, Citterio went on to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, where he graduated in 1975. As a testament to his enthusiasm for a career in design, however, Citterio opened his own design studio in 1972, three years prior to his graduation. There, Citterio experimented with design concepts that spoke to the late 20^th century aesthetic and that have resulted in his successful and prolific career as a creator of innovative furnishing designs. Among his most notable furniture designs are the Diesis sofa (1979), in collaboration with Paolo Nava, for B&B Italia, and the Sity sofa, for B&B Italia (1986) and for which he won his first Compasso d’Oro award in 1987. For Kartell, he created several successful plastic designs, including the Battista table (1991), the Oxo trolley (1991), and the Mobil container system (1993), for which he won his second Compasso d’Oro in 1994.

Starting in 1987, Citterio embarked on a decade-long collaboration with American architect Terry Dwan during which the duo developed a series of innovative architectural projects across Europe and Japan. In 1999, Citterio worked with Milan-born architect Patricia Viel to establish a new architectural firm, Antonio Citterio & Partners, which was renamed the following decade as Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners (ACPV). ACPV is one of Italy’s largest architectural firms, developing numerous international residential and commercial projects, including several Bulgari Hotel locations around the globe.

Today, Antonio Citterio works mostly in industrial design projects, while Patricia Viel concentrates on the architectural design work of ACPV. Since 2006, he has served as a full-time professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland. In 2008, Citterio was named “Royal Designer for Industry” by the Royal Society of the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce of London. Several of his designs are included in important museum collections, such as that of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which holds Citterio’s Mobil container system (1993), designed in collaboration with Glen Oliver Löw, and his tableware line, Tools Citterio (2000), is featured at the Chicago Museum of Architecture and Design.

Last updated: April 4, 2019

For additional information on Antonio Citterio, please visit the following:

“Antonio Citterio” Wikipedia.

“DesignBoom” Citterio-Viel projects.