Antonia Astori (b.1940) Co-founded Driade

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Antonia Astori is an Italian fashion designer who co-founded Driade with her brother Enrico and Adelaide Acerbi in 1968. 

Biography

She worked as a project coordinator and designed furniture. She was able to create a unique network of furniture designers, galleries, and shops. Oikos I, Oikos II, and Pantos were her forerunner containment structures. Antonia Astori adds individual parts to such schemes, still keeping the sense of life at the forefront. She created Aforismi, the San Souci Collection, and, later, the Virginia writing desk and Eileen bookcase in this spirit.

Since then, Astori has collaborated with international designers such as Achille Castiglioni, Philippe Starck, Borek Sipek, Ross Lovegrove, Alfredo Haberii, and Paola Navona to create its collections, which have become a fashion barometer and a point of reference for the new design.

Prototype Kitchen (homage to McDonalds) Antonia Astori for Driade 1982
Oikos-due designed by Antonia Astori for Driade. Pressed wood with melamine covering
Didymos Oval Table with Black Marble Top by Antonia Astori for Driade
Netta Celiling Lamp by Antonia Astori
Antonia Astori Wood Dione Driade Italian Desk Writing Table
Bureau angulaire Antonia Astori

Antonia Astori’s work for Driade spans the office and the domestic sector. Her kitchen storage device designs were ideal. Astori’s background is as an architect. Adelaide Acerbi, an eminent graphic designer and her sister-in-law, claims that Italian design is popular because it is in the hands of architects “Industrial design is similar to the creation of individual sculptures, while architecture is concerned with the creation of structures. It’s the difference between a set of isolated ideas and the creation of a complete philosophy.”

Oikos

Oikos is a complex architectural concept for the design of living rooms, workspaces, bedrooms, baths, and kitchens created in 1972. It uses a simple cube as the essential element of a complex architectural concept to design living rooms, workspaces, bedrooms, baths, and kitchens. On the strength of its simple geometry, high formal precision, and minimalist elegance, Oikos stands as a classic of its genre nearly three decades later. Kaos, introduced in the 1980s, and Pantos, introduced in 1993, are two other popular furniture systems from Astori.

She has worked on Driade’s visual identity and graphics software and designed various individual pieces of furniture. She has also worked as a trade show demonstration, workplace, and exhibition designer for foreign corporations.

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Sources

Abendroth, U., & Polster, B. (2000). World design: the best in classic and contemporary furniture, fashion, graphics and more. Chronicle Books.

Antonia Astori. Driade – USA. (n.d.). https://www.driade.com/us/antonia-astori.

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The Design Encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Dormer, P. (1987). The New Furniture: Trends + Traditions. Thames and Hudson.

Neumann, C. (1999). Design directory Italy. Universe.

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