Both graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan, the brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni - along with the third brother Livio, as early as 1940, dedicated to testing industrial production. Immediately after the war, Achille and Pier Giacomo began to work closely. Their interests included Town Planning, Architecture and Design (carrying out research on shapes, techniques and new materials, aimed at developing an integral design process), and they had varied and intensive professional activities, actively participating in international cultural life: congresses, conferences and round tables, with particular regard paid to Industrial Design. In 1956, they were among the founders of the ADI (Association of Industrial Design). Their varied interests also brought the brothers into the field of teaching. They are well known on an international level, for their objects in the field of lighting and furnishing, as well as for their spectacular exhibition installations.

Achille Castiglioni was born in Milan in 1918. He graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1944. From 1969 to 1993, he was professor of ‘Industrial Design’ first in the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Turin, and then in Milan. He received numerous awards, including: nine Compasso d’Oro awards, Gran Premi of the Milan Triennale, he won many international competitions, was made Honorary Member of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry of the Royal Society of Art (London), awarded an Honorary Degree from the Royal College of Art (London), awarded an Honorary Degree in Industrial Design from the Polytechnic University of Milan. Many of his works are exhibited in Museums all over the world and MoMA in New York features fourteen of his works. Between 1984 and 1986, an exhibition entirely dedicated to his works began in Vienna, and was shown in major European museums. On the occasion of the ‘Primavera del Design’ award, in 1995 a personal exhibition was held in Barcelona, then shown all over the world, until 1998. He died in Milan in 2002.

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni was born in Milan in 1913. He graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1937. After graduating, he started working with Luigi Caccia Dominioni, and his brother Livio, and in 1939 they together created the first ever radio apparatus made from plastic materials. From 1958 to 1968, he was professor of ‘Architectonic Composition’ in the Faculty of Architecture, at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He received numerous awards, including: five Compasso d’Oro awards, Gran Premi of the Milan Triennale, he won many international competitions, and many of his works are exhibited in Museums all over the world, including in MoMA in New York.  He died in Milan in 1968.