Carlo De Carli
Carlo De Carli (1910-1999) was not only an architect and designer, who made a profound impact on design in the 20th century, but also one of Italy’s leading and most respected professors, who left a fundamental mark of theoretical reflections and ethics of behaviour in an entire generation of architects.
He graduated in architecture from the Politecnico di Milan in 1934 – a university in which he was strongly connected to throughout his career, being Dean of the Faculty of Architecture from 1965 to 1968 and teaching there until 1986. A respected academic and writer, his philosophy focused on the integration of space, material and the human body and gesture, and with this ideology he effectively engaged a dialog between design, universities and the craftsmanship world.
FROM ARCHITECTURE TO ART
By the 1950s, De Carli’s furniture designs had earned widespread recognition and secured him manufacturing partnerships with leading Italian design companies, including Tecno and Cassina. In 1954, his Model 683 chair was awarded Italy’s highest honor in industrial design, the Compasso d’Oro, and the Good Design Award from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 1957 his Balestra armchair received the Grand Prize at Milan’s 11th Triennale.
DESIGNING FOR LIFE
Across all disciplines, De Carli’s design practice was distinguished by its emphasis on integrating space, behavior, and the human body. His buildings and furniture were designed to be lived in, not merely admired.
He brought this philosophy to his academic work at the Politecnico di Milano, where he succeeded Gio Ponti as professor of Interior Architecture, Furniture, and Decoration in 1962. De Carli also served as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture from 1965 to 1968, and continued to teach at the university until 1986.
In addition to founding the magazine Il Mobile Italiano in 1957 and directing Interni from 1967 to 1971, De Carli compiled his reflections into various writings. Many of his most notable ideas are collected in the 1982 book Architettura, Spazio Primario, which explores his concept of architecture as ‘primary space’ – given meaning and definition by human action – and emphasizes the unity between buildings, interiors, and the furniture within them. For De Carli, architecture and design derived meaning from their relationship with human lives, with no distinction to be made between a building and an item of furniture.
When he died beside his beloved Lake Garda in 1999, Carlo De Carli left behind an extraordinary intellectual legacy, managed and maintained today by his family. His remarkable body of design work at all scales elegantly expresses his vision of human-centered architecture. This was founded on principles of continuity, simplicity, and balance – spaces of gesture and encounter, where the value of humanity and the sentiment of solidarity could be truly felt.