Gianfranco Frattini

Born in Padua in 1926, Gianfranco Frattini graduated in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic in 1953, and after a first collaboration with his teacher and mentor Giò Punti, Frattini opened his own workshop in Milan and became an industrial designer “almost in spite of himself”, when he found that he could not find any lighting or furniture that suited him for his interior. His collaboration with Cassina began in 1954 and was followed by many others, including Bernini, Arteluce, Fantoni, Knoll and Artemide (for whom he created the famous Boalum lamp). In 1956, he co-founded the Association for Industrial Design and throughout his career, he pursued architectural and industrial design projects, mainly for interiors. A great connoisseur of woodworking, he developed a long and fruitful partnership with master craftsman Pierluigi Ghianda, of Bovisio Masciago.