Anna Castelli Ferrieri was born in Milan in Italy in 1918. She studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano from 1938 to 1943 and, three years later, founded her own architecture practice in Milan, where she worked on urban planning and designed residential buildings, hospitals, churches and industrial buildings.
In 1946/1947, around the same time, she was also editor-in-chief of the architecture magazine "Casabella-Costruzioni".
While still a student, Anna Castelli Ferrieri came into contact with famous figures such as Le Corbusier. Above all, however, she was inspired by Franco Albini, one of the most important representatives of Italian "Razionalismo", whose strict minimalism had a lasting influence on her.
In 1949, her husband Giulio Castelli, a chemist who had studied with the Nobel Prize winner Giulio Natta, founded the furniture manufacturer Kartell. As an architect, Anna Castelli Ferrieri designed the Kartell building in Binasco in 1966 and joined the company as a design consultant. From 1976 to 1987, she was Kartell's art director. Anna Castelli Ferrieri became known worldwide for the "Componibili" modular storage system (1967), which received the German Federal Prize for Good Form, and for the polypropylene chair No. 4870 (1986), for which she received Italy's most prestigious design award, the "Compasso d'Oro".
From 1984, Anna Castelli Ferrieri taught at the Politecnico di Milano and, three years later, also at the Domus Academy. In 1988, she ended her official work for Kartell and, in the 1990s, designed various furnishings for companies such as Sambonet, Arflex and Ycami.
Alongside Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni, Gae Aulenti, Ettore Sottsass and Joe Colombo, Anna Castelli Ferrieri is one of the most important designers of the Italian post-war period. Her designs have a simple, matter-of-fact style, yet also convince through their practicality, suitability for series production and value for money. Some of her works can now be seen in the world's leading museums, such as MoMA in New York in the USA.
Anna Castelli Ferrieri died in Milan on 22 June 2006, at the age of 87.
