Giancarlo Piretti

Giancarlo Piretti (Bologna, 1940–2026) was an Italian industrial designer who trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna and later taught interior design at the city’s Istituto Statale d’Arte. His career is bound to Anonima Castelli, for which he designed the DSC 106 chair in 1965, the Plia folding chair in 1967, the Pluvium umbrella stand and the Platone table.

Plia, with its transparent polycarbonate seat, aluminium frame and visible hinge, turned a folding mechanism into an icon of industrial design and entered the collections of MoMA and the Vitra Design Museum. Piretti won the Compasso d’Oro in 1981 for the Vertebra chairs and in 1991 for the Piretti Collection 15000; he also worked with KI, Okamura, B&B Italia and Erco, and his studio Piretti Design operates in Bologna within Pro-cord.