T
he first of our ‘Industry Icons’ comes in the form of female Italian design superpower Gae Aulenti. Working across of a plethora of mediums she was one of a scarce number of female architects shaping post-war Italy.
Graduating from Milan Polytechnic University in 1954, she was one of just two female architecture students within a class of twenty. Upon graduating she joined the publication Casabella, where she worked as an art director during the 1950’s and 1960’s, whilst simultaneously running a private practice and later teaching in both Milan and Venice.
Throughout her prolific career, she was commissioned to design some of the world’s most admired buildings from the Musée d’Orsay in the 1980’s to the Centre Pompidou and the Palazzo Grassi.