Born in Milan, Vico Magistretti attended Parini High School before enrolling in the Faculty of Architecture at the Regio Politecnico di Milano in the fall of 1939. He moved to Switzerland, where he took several academic courses at the Champ Universitarie Italien in Lausanne. During this time, he spent time with Ernesto Nathan Rogers, a fundamental influence on his intellectual development. He returned to Milan in 1945, where he graduated in architecture from the Politecnico. He immediately began working for his father’s firm, architect Piergiulio Magistretti, on Via Conservatorio. He designed and built around 14 projects for INA-Casa between 1949 and 1959. During the period of the Milan Triennials and the growth of the design industry, his involvement in the 8th, 9th (Gold Medal), and 10th (Grand Prix) editions was particularly significant, and he also organized several exhibitions in the more recent years of this Milan institution. The 1950s were a very busy and fruitful period for the young architect, who brought many innovative ideas and quickly emerged as one of the brightest exponents of the “third generation.” Over the following years, he increasingly worked as a designer as well as an architect, creating furniture and objects that would become “classics” of modern production. This was also the period in which he was awarded a Compasso d’Oro for the Eclisse lamp (1966), for the Atollo lamp (awarded in 1979), and for the Maralunga sofa (awarded in 1979). It was during this time that he began working with the best design brands. His design works are exhibited in the permanent collection of MoMA in New York and in many other museums in America and Europe. In the field of architecture, it is worth mentioning his appointment as an honorary member of the Royal College of Art in London, where he was also a “visiting professor.” He also took part in exhibitions and conferences in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

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