Ignazio Gardella

Mario "Ignazio" Gardella was an Italian architect, designer and engineer. Born in Oleggio, in the province of Novara, in 1905, from an early age he decided to adopt the name of his great-grandfather, the progenitor of his family. A school friend of Luchino Visconti, in 1928 he graduated in engineering at the Regio Istituto Tecnico Superiore (the future Polytechnic University of Milan) and in 1949 at the IUAV in Venice. He had a very long professional activity, temporarily interrupted during World War II, also in the university field: he was professor at the Venice Institute of Architecture until 1975. In 1947 he founded, together with Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Azucena, the first Italian company to produce designer furniture. He passed away in Oleggio in 1999.