Anna Castelli Ferrieri, the grande dame of Kartell

Anna Castelli Ferrieri (1918-2006) is one of the first Italian women architects to graduate from the Politecnico di Milano, in 1943. With her husband Giulio Castelli, she co-founded the publisher Kartell in 1949, of which she became artistic director. For forty years, she led the design of a catalogue that revolutionised plastic furniture: her Componibili (1969), a modular storage unit in thermoformed ABS, became one of the best-selling design objects of the 20th century, still edited today and exhibited at MoMA. A founding body of work of Italian industrial design.

The Componibili in coloured ABS remains Anna Castelli Ferrieri's signature piece, one of the absolute classics of Italian plastic furniture. Vintage furniture to find for those wanting a Kartell icon still in production, at a much lower price when bought second-hand.