was born in Milan, Italy in 1963.
After graduating from the Politecnico di Milano, in 1988 he started to work as an architect and designer.

From 1989 - 1995 he mainly worked as an architect.

His experience as a furniture designer started in 1996 when TOTEM, which specializes in the design and production of wooden knock-down furniture, was founded; some designs developed during the period before the company was started (1992-1995), featured in the first TOTEM catalogue, were later ceded to other manufacturers in 1999.
This site regards his work as a furniture designer and includes brief descriptions of his most important designs and the initiatives he has participated in as a designer (exhibitions, fairs, conventions, teaching experiences.)

Besides the broad range of items he has designed for TOTEM, including beds, modular bookcases, chairs, lamps, armoires and children’s furniture, he has also done solid wood designs for other companies, particularly in the ecological furniture sector.
From1997 to 2001 he was president of Materia Utile, ecological furniture consortium, featured at the Salone Satellite in 1999.
Paolo Cogliati’s designs have appeared in numerous publications, journals and exhibitions, and the Canoa bed was selected to be shown at Centre Pompidou - Carrefour de la creation, 2001.
He was a member of the 2002 committee charged with establishing a national standard for ecological furniture (anab - aiab - fsc - wwf - università la sapienza of roma).
Since 2003 he has been operating in the public sector, in particular with schools and preschools.

In 2005 for TOTEM began to develop products in Bolivia, a country going through a new political and cultural season which is making the native populations the protagonists of development and change, as they reclaim their ownership of the country’s natural resources

paolo cogliati