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Design Icon: Gaetano Pesce

Award-winning Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce is the creative mind behind numerous iconic designs that express his unique creativity and ability to experiment with new materials and shapes, creating sculptural decorative objects and furniture—pieces of art, in other words. Get to know his story and explore the unique pieces made out of resin he designed for Corsi Design.

Gaetano Pesce Portrait
Gaetano Pesce Portrait
Kid Lamp in  twine and resin designed by Gaetano Pesce in 2013
Kid Lamp in twine and resin designed by Gaetano Pesce in 2013

Architect and designer Gaetano Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939 and grew up in the cities of Padua and Florence. He studied architecture at the University of Venice, with notable teachers such as Carlo Scarpa and Ernesto Rogers. Between 1958 and 1963, Gaetano Pesce participated in the creation of Gruppo N, a collective of artists founded around the idea of programmed art that had emerged from the 1920s Bauhaus movement.

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I strive to seek new material that fit into the logic of construction, while performing services appropriate to real needs.

Details of Ruth Shuman New York apartment featuring striking designs by Gaetano Pesce
Details of Ruth Shuman New York apartment featuring striking designs by Gaetano Pesce
The Osaka Organic Building designed by Gaetano Pesce in 1989
The Osaka Organic Building designed by Gaetano Pesce in 1989

Gaetano Pesce was one of the leaders of the Italian Radical Design Group of the 1960s. Since 1962, he has worked in the design sector, experimenting with new materials and unusual shapes. He is renowned for mixing art with interior design, products, and architecture. In 1971, he collaborated with Alessandro Mendini in BracciodiFerro (the Cassina group) for the production of experimental objects. He also taught architecture in numerous institutions, including the Institut d'Architecture et d'Etudes Urbaines in Strasbourg, France for 28 years, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, the Domus Academy in Milan, the Polytechnic of Hong Kong, and the Cooper Union in New York City, where he has been living since 1980, after staying in many cities including Venice, London, Helsinki, and Paris.

Gaetano Pesce has designed iconic pieces for brands such as B&B Italia and Cassina and has won several awards including the Chrysler Award for Innovation and Design in 1993, the Design Excellence Award from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2005, and the Lawrence J. Israel Prize from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2009. His designs are featured in over 30 permanent collections of some of the world's most important museums, including the MoMA Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Musee des Arts Décoratifs of Louvre in Paris.

Explore iconic pieces designed by Gaetano Pesce on the ​Corsi Design Page, featuring interesting shapes, colors, and materials.

The contemporary Feltri armchair designed by Gaetano Pesce for Cassina in 1987
The contemporary Feltri armchair designed by Gaetano Pesce for Cassina in 1987

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