Ignazio GARDELLA

Ignazio Gardella studied engineering at Politecnico di Milano, and architecture at Instituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice, to 1949. Gardella began his career as an architect and town planner with interior decoration and rebuilding schemes including 1934 theatre, Busto Arsizio. Ignazio Gardella entered the competition for the tower in Piazza del Duomo, Milan, followed by his design for 1937 Dispensario Provinciale e Laboratorio di Igiene e profilassent, Alessandria (Italy). Gardella became active in industrial design and designed 1940 folding butterfly chair by Vigano with the intention of having a place to experiment, (with Caccia Dominioni) set up the Azuneca shop in 1949 and produced high-quality furniture and furnishings. He wrote for the journal Casabella during Ernesto Roger’s editorship (1954-65). Ignazio Gardella was professor of architectural composition, Instituto Universitario di Architettura, Venice. In the 1950’s, Anna Castillo Ferrieri joined Gardella, becoming the architect and designer who was to realize Gardella’s designs. Ferrieri worked with him for 15 years on public-housing and furniture projects. Gardella was among the first to break with Italian Rationalism, reviving the neoclassical architectural tradition. His classical façade for 1945 Villa Borletti and Olivetti headquarters building, placed him at the center of the 1950’s controversies discussed in Rogers’s Casabella. He designed the Digamma armchair for Favina. Ignazio Gardella was a pioneering plastic furniture with Ferrieri for Kartell, for Rima and in 1960 Olivetti showroom in Düsseldorf.