Cocoon Ceiling Lamp 'Viscontea' by Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos

The Italian designer Achille Castiglioni (1918-2002) studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. Together with his brother Pier Giacomo he designed classics for the lighting manufacturer Flos such as the Arco arc lamp (1962) with its cantilevered Carrara marble base and the Taraxacum pendant lamp (1960). For Zanotta he designed the stools Mezzadro and Sella (both 1957), which use a tractor seat and a bicycle saddle respectively as the seat, an expression of his design process shaped by curiosity and observation of everyday life. Fourteen of his designs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.