LUIGI CACCIA DOMINIONI
Luigi Caccia Dominioni (b. 1913, Milan – d. 2016) was an Italian designer and architect born in Milan from a noble family. In 1936 he graduated from the Politecnico di Milano with a degree in architecture where he met many of the influential architects and designers of the time.
Following graduation he started his practice in Venice with Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (fellow student brothers at the Politecnico), winning the competition held at the Vimercate School. Together, in 1937, they formed a studio and won several design competitions. It was through this partnership that in 1938 they created the first radio designs for the Phonola company, which were later perfected and presented at the 1940 VII Triennale di Milano (Milan Triennial).
He is considered a pioneer industrial designer and one of the leading representatives of what is called the Milan style. This concept was developed by architect, writer, and BBPR founder Ernesto Nathan Rogers in the late 1940's as the unique design approach of Milan that included technique, theory, and a profound attention to craftsmanship.
In fact, it was with this craftsmanship that Luigi Caccia Dominioni found a special affinity; by his own account, he found pleasure and inspiration from his frequent collaborations with the many wood, glass, stone, and metal craftsmen of Milan. “The truth is, I’m a Baroque architect. Modern architecture began with the Baroque,” Caccia Dominioni declared in one of the rare interviews he accorded (published in PIN–UP in 2014). For him, the Baroque was a fundamentally modern movement, inspiring not only in its sinuous details but also in its transformation of classical ideals to produce a radical sensuality and dramatic energy.
In 1947, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, along with Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua, founded the influential and successful furniture manufacturer Azucena. Caccia Dominioni went on to design and create numerous lighting and furniture pieces, many of which received the Compasso d’Oro. Azucena immediately became the connoisseur’s go-to address for intelligently conceived pieces that combined a sense of simplicity and good taste with formal and technical ingenuity. Designs like the Imbuto and Monachella lamps (both 1953) share a sense of refinement and attention to craftsmanship which can also be found in the slender folding legs of the Cavalletto table (‘48) and in the Nonaro chairs (‘62). His most famous piece is the Catilina armchair (‘58).
Gio Ponti understood what was going to become industrial art was nothing other than the result of careful planning and the unbiased design of objects that were used every day. It was no accident that Ponti was among the first to recognize Caccia Dominioni as a trend-setter for style in the future; his original style is called “Caccia style” for this very reason. Ponti wrote that Caccia Dominioni does not furnish homes, instead he “interprets them and expresses their personality” giving “a value (of environment or space) to the sequence of rooms”.
Caccia Dominioni's most notable architectural projects in Milan are the reconstruction of his family home, Casa Caccia Dominioni in Piazza Sant’Ambrogio (1947–49), the Loro-Parisini house on via Savona (1951–57), a residential building on via Nievo (1954–55), a residential building in Piazza Carbonari (1960–61), a commercial building on corso Monforte (1963–64), Casa Geronazzo on via Tamburini (1960–68), the Biblioteca Vanoni in Morbegno (1965–66), and — very late in his career — the San Babila fountain in Milan (‘96).
