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Design Icon: Piero Lissoni

Piero Lissoni is one of the most influential Italian architects, designers and art directors. Following the mastery of Achille Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass, with his keen sense of minimalism, clean and industrial aesthetics he has designed numerous products and spaces for renowned Italian brands such as Bonacina, Glas, Salvatori, Sanlorenzo, Thonet, and more.

​Renowned Italian Architect, Designer, and Art Director, Piero Lissoni was born in 1956 in the industrial village of Seregno, just outside Milan. He was raised in a family of interesting personalities: his father was a restorer of antique furniture and his grandfathers, one of whom was a socialist and anarchist, and the other a communist and aristocrat, Piero Lissoni grew up between freedom and discipline.

During his Architecture studies at the Politecnico di Milano, from which he obtained his degree in 1985, Piero started envisioning architecture and design as one all-inclusive discipline, under the extraordinary mentorship of ​Achille Castiglioni and Marco Zanuso. His personal approach to design comes with a great study of proportions, an acute sensitivity for the subtlety, and a philosophy to design not for specific functions but for human beings.

​Piero Lissoni started out working as the art director for Boffi Kitchens where he designed kitchens and bathrooms. Just one year after graduating, in 1968, he and his partner Nicoletta Canesi established ​Lissoni Associati, a multidisciplinary studio focusing on architecture, interior, and product design. Ater ten years, he then founded Graph.X, specializing in brand development and corporate identity.

His interiors and architecture projects include offices and showrooms, yachts, private homes, and hotels. In recent years, his prominent works are the Monaco & Grand Canal in Venice, the Al Porto hotel on Lake Zurich, the Bentley Design Hotel in Istanbul, the Mitsui Garden Ginza Hotel in Tokyo, a private villa in Tel Aviv to name a few.

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To be an architect means to be flexible. I like to design everything. My process is a bit schizophrenic, I jump in and out between scales. The most important aspect of my work is proportion.

Piero Lissoni with Pietra L01
Piero Lissoni with Pietra L01
Colonnata Bookcase by Salvatori
Colonnata Bookcase by Salvatori

​His passion for industrial design resulted in significant collaborations with notable Italian design companies. Piero Lissoni is the artistic director of ​San​ Lorenz​o, ​Bonacina1889, Cappellini, ​Glas Italia​Golran, Illy, Olivari and ​Salvatori for whom he designs various products.

Colonnata bookcase by Piero Lissoni for Salvatori is one ofhis iconic pieces, which was designed to minimize waste while maximizing the quality of the design. It involves industrial techniques in its production and yet, because the kind of stone used changes each time, each bookcase is different.

Piero’s contribution in the design and architecture world has been recognized worldwide and has earned him a series of international awards: Good Design Award, the Red Dot Award, the Compasso D’Oro, the ADI/Association for Industrial Design, the Elle Décor International Design Award, and the Wallpaper Design Award to name a few. He is also a guest lecturer and member of the Advisory Board at the Politecnico di Milano.

Piero Lissoni's design approach has always been fresh, innovative, and comfortable both for the body and the mind, while his architecture projects reflect order and balance that makes his projects real chefs-d’œuvre.

The ideal product should reveal the research behind it, and have a certain amount of style. A period of long reflection goes into my projects and the development phase may take years and require constant modifications.

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