Giancarlo Piretti

Italian interior and industrial designer Giancarlo Piretti was born in 1940 in Bologna. He obtained his teaching degree in drawing at the Art Institute of Bologna, and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1960. From 1963 until 1970, he taught interior design at the Art Institute of Bologna.

In the 1960s, Piretti also joined Italian design company Castelli as an interior designer, creating home furniture and office furnishings. During his twelve years at Castelli, Piretti obtained numerous industrial patents for his designs, which were mostly chairs. Piretti’s work for Castelli garnered the company an international reputation in furniture design. His most well-known design is the plastic folding Plia Chair (1968), which has sold over seven million copies since 1969 and is still in production.

In 1988, Piretti revealed The Piretti Collection in Chicago, which included over 50 different office chairs and seating styles. The collection, which has won several prizes including the UBD, the ASID, the Compasso d’Oro and the G-Mark, was designed to respond to the specific needs of each individual user. Today, they have sold more than two-and-a-half million pieces from the collection.

Piretti lives and works in Bologna with his son, designer Alessandro Piretti.