He trained at the Polytechnic University of Milan and, in the immediate post-war years, was the co-editor of the Domus magazine with Ernesto N. Rogers. He was awarded the Medaglia d'oro and the Gran Premio at the Milan Triennale on a number of occasions (VIII, IX, X, XI and XIII editions), and won five Compassi d’Oro between 1956 and 1985.Zanuso was one of the first designers in Italy to take an interest in the problems of product industrialization, going beyond aesthetic issues to incorporate technological, industrial, distribution and communication variables. According to Zanuso, the form of an object destined for serial reproduction is an amalgam of opportunities, experimentation and innovation in the concrete process that connects creativity, production and the social and cultural context.

“Through my projects I want to give form to what I call complexity."