Angelo Mangiarotti was born in Milan on 26th of February 1921.
He graduated in Architecture in 1948 at Politecnico di Milano. In 1953-1954 he works in the United States, participating also to the competition for Chicago “LOOP”. While leaving abroad he knew Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann.
By coming back from United States, he opened an architectural firm together with Bruno Morassutti until 1960.
In 1989 he founded Mangiarotti & Associates Office based in Tokyo.
From 1986 to 1992 he’s art director of Colle Cristalleria.
Mangiarotti, while working as an architect whose works are published on books, specialized magazines and newspapers, had an intense didactic activity made in different Italian and foreign Universities. In 1953-1954 he is a visiting professor at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago; in 1963-1964 he’s professor in a course of Istituto Superiore di Disegno Industriale of Venice; he’s visiting professor at University of Hawaii in 1970, at the Ecole Politecnique Fédérale of Losanna in 1974, at University of Adelaide and at South Australian Institute of Technology of Adelaide in 1976; in 1982 he has a contract as professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Palermo; in 1983 he is supply professor for the course of composition at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, in 1989-90 he has a contract as professor in the graduation course in Industrial Design at the Faculty of Architecture of Politecnico di Milano. He participated to many international seminars and conferences.
In Mangiarotti’s design activity, whose theoric fundamentals are expressed in the book “In nome dell’architettura” published in 1987, he wanted to en light the essential characteristics of every object, since only an “objective” design is able to prevent any abuse against the user itself in order to become, instead, recognizable by the collectivity. The architectural language become the expression of a new relation between man and environment, while in Mangiarotti’s activity as a designer he give a very important role to the plastic research. The aim of his research, which is always led respecting carefully the material characteristics, is the definition of the object’s form as a quality of the material.
His design work is marked by a lot of prizes received both in the field of design and architecture: Domus Formica Prize (1956), In/Arch Prize for Lombardia (1962), First Prize in the National Prize of Industrial Design of La Spezia Gulf (1963), AIP-Associazione Italiana Prefabbricatori Prize (1972), Prix Européen de la Construction Métallique (1979), Medal and honorary degree at III Mundial Biennal Exhibition of Architecture in Sofia (1986), First prize at “Concorso Targa Alcan” (1989), Special mention at In/Arch National Prize (1989), Design Plus Prize for “Ergonomica” collection (1991), Marble Architectural Awards (1994), Compasso d’oro ADI for carrier (1994), “Honoris Causa” degree in Engineering – Faculty of Architecture. Technischen Universitat of Munich (1998), Gold Metal in Architecture category – Accademia della Torre di Carrara (1998), “Honoris Causa” degree in Industrial Design – Faculty of Architecture. Politecnico di Milano (2002), Gold Metal for “Apostolo del Design” from Rima Editrice (2006), Marble Architectural Awards 2007, special mention Award “ArchitettiVerona” from the Ordine degli Architetti P.P.C. di Verona (2009).
He died in Milan on 30th of June 2012.