Cini Boeri

Background

Cini Boeri (1924-2020) was an Italian architect and designer from Milan, a city she stayed close to all her life. She took her architecture degree at the Politecnico di Milano in 1951 and, after a brief apprenticeship with Gio Ponti, worked for more than a decade with Marco Zanuso. In 1963 she opened her own studio, working across architecture, industrial design and exhibition design.

Signature Style

Boeri designed with the needs of the individual in mind, aiming to promote autonomy in space and in relationships. Her aesthetic was functional and poetic, attentive to how people actually live, and her practice combined a strong moral and intellectual commitment with an experimental approach to materials.

Notable Works

• Strips sofa system for Arflex, awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1979
• Rever door for Tre Piu, Gold Medal at the Ljubljana Biennale of Industrial Design in 1984
• Tako, the low table now in the Tacchini range
• Houses, apartments, museum installations, offices and shops in Italy and abroad

Legacy

She received the Compasso d'Oro for lifetime achievement in 2011 and was named Grande Ufficiale of the Italian Republic's Order of Merit the same year. Archivio Cini Boeri, set up in 2023, gathers, classifies and studies her work.