Antonia Astori

Antonia Astori was born in Melzo (Milan) in 1940. She graduated in Industrial and Visual Design at the Athenaeum of Lausanne in 1966. Starting from 1968 she works as a designer for the Italian company Driade, implementing some important furniture systems and furnishing items, which are intended as room architectures, and helping to shape the corporate image with her set-ups and exhibitions. She conceives her furniture systems as open works where the end-user could contribute to the final definition, and where she analyses formal potentialities. In her set-ups realized for fair events, stores, and showrooms, she highlights the expressive qualities and the possible uses of products. Her activity as a designer goes alongside her work as an interior designer, with projects for houses, offices, showrooms, and stores. As for this sphere, particular importance is given to the cooperation with French designers Marithé and François Girbaud for the designing of some shops in Paris and in other cities around the world, the realization of the project for the offices and showrooms of Driade and the numerous shops of Driade.