Cini Boeri (19 June 1924 – 9 September 2020) was an Italian architect and designer.

Career

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6346933

Boeri earned her degree at the

Politecnico di Milano The Polytechnic University of Milan () is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 42,000 students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design. Founded in 186 ...

university in 1951. At that time, there were more female interior designers than architects because it was thought that women were too fragile to work outside. After collaborating with

Marco Zanuso Marco Zanuso (14 May 1916 – 11 July 2001) was a leading Italian Modernist architect and designer. Early life Marco Zanuso was born in Milan (Italy) 14 May 1916. He was one of a group of Italian designers from Milan shaping the internat ...

from 1951 through 1963, she started an independent architectural practice. Her main focuses in architecture were civil and interior architecture, as well as

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

. In the 1970s, Boeri began designing showrooms for

Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, Ar ...

in Europe and America. She also designed a variety of sofas and chairs for the company, some of which are still in production today. In addition, she worked for a variety of other design companies, including lighting company

Artemide __NOTOC__ Artemide () is a design-oriented Italian manufacturer founded by Ernesto Gismondi and Sergio Mazza in 1960. Based in Pregnana Milanese, a suburb of Milan, the company specialises in the manufacture of lighting designed by designers an ...

, furniture company Arflex, and the housewares company Rosenthal. Some do not know that Boeri was a trained architect because of her work for Knoll and Arflex. Different examples of her work can be found in museumsand international exhibitions.

Prizes and awards

Boeri was awarded many prizes; among those, in 1979 a Compasso D'Oro (strips product design for arflex) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles in 2008.

Death

She died on 9 September 2020 in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

at the age of 96.

Works

Source:

Design

* 1964 Borgogna armchair ( Arflex) * 1967 Bobo and Cubotto one-piece armchair ( Arflex) * 1967 ABS luggage set (

Franzi The Valigeria Franzi was an Italian manufacturer of leather bags and luggage founded in Milan in 1864 by Rocco Franzi. By the early 20th century, it was a supplier to royalty and nobility. It was listed on the Milan stock exchange from 1905 ...

) * 1968 Bengodi sofa ( Arflex) * 1970 Lunario table and Gradual sofa (Knoll) * 1971 Serpentone sofa ( Arflex) * 1972 Strips sofa (Arflex) * 1972 Cibi glasses and crystal decorative objects
Arnolfo di Cambio
* 1973 Lucetta desk lamp (Stilnovo) * 1976 Talete table (Arflex) * 1977 Brigadier armchair (Knoll) * 1980 Double face revolving bookcase (Arflex) * 1982 Tre B handles (Fusital) * 1982 Dito desk table (Tronconi) * 1982 Rever door (Tre-P Tre-Più) * 1983 Malibu table (Arflex) * 1983 prefabricated house (Misawa Homes,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

) * 1987 Ghost armchair (Fiam) * 1989 Steps drawer (

Estel Estel (also styled as ESTEL) was a steel company formed by the merging of Koninklijke Hoogovens IJmuiden steel plant and Hoesch's main steel plant in Dortmund. The company existed from 1972 to 1982 until de-merged. History In 1966 the board of K ...

) * 1989 Feltro chandelier (

Venini Venini were a British artrock band, featuring members of Pulp and Ladytron, who were active between the years 1998 and 2001. History Guitarist and violinist Russell Senior left Pulp in 1997 and began writing and demoing songs with vocalist/lyric ...

) * 2007 To the wall bookcase (

Magis ''Magis'' (pronounced "màh-gis") is a Latin word that means "more" or "greater". It is related to ''ad majorem Dei gloriam'', a Latin phrase meaning "for the greater glory of God", the motto of the Society of Jesus. Magis refers to the philoso ...

)

Architecture

* 1966-67 Holiday house in Punta Cannone (

La Maddalena La Maddalena (Gallurese: ''Madalena'' or ''La Madalena'', sc, Sa Madalena) is a town and ''comune'' located on the islands of the Maddalena archipelago in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. The main town of the same name is locat ...

, Italy) * 1967 Holiday house on Abbataggia gulf (La Maddalena, Italy) * 1970 Museum house of

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

in Ghilarza (

Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...

Italy) * 1976 Restoration of Palazzo Forti (

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, Italy) * 1990 Country house (

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

, Italy) * 1997 EDS office building (

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy) * 2003/2004 Holiday house on Abbataggia gulf (La Maddalena, Italy) * 2007 Museum of the Duomo treasure (

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

, Italy)

Publications

*Cecilia Avogadro (a cura di), ''Cini Boeri, architetto e designer'', Silvana Editoriale, 2004 () * Charlotte Fiell; Peter Fiell (ed): ''Design des 20. Jahrhunderts'', Taschen, Cologne 2012, (), p. 121

References

Italian designers Polytechnic University of Milan alumni 1924 births 2020 deaths Architects from Milan Italian women architects Compasso d'Oro Award recipients {{Italy-architect-stub