Skai & Iron Armchair by Marco Zanuso for Poltronova, 1970s

Italian architect-designer Marco Zanuso was born in Milan in 1916. After graduating from the Politecnico di Milano in 1939, he taught architecture, design, and town planning from the 1940s onwards. Zanuso opened his own architecture and design studio in Milan in 1945.

In the late 1940s, Zanuso began collaborating with Italian manufacturing company Arflex to create a furniture collection using a newly developed polyurethane foam and elastic tape. Guided by the principle that these new materials would inform the aesthetic result, Zanuso designed a series of pieces for Arflex that became icons of modernist design, including the Lady Armchair (1951)—which won the gold medal at Milan’s IX Triennale—the Sleep-o-matic Sofa (1951), the Martingala Armchair (1952), and the Fourline Armchair (1964).

Between 1957 and 1977, Zanuso maintained a partnership with German industrial designer Richard Sapper (1932-2015). Together they pioneered a new postwar aesthetic known as techno-functionalism, which evolved from a series of radios and televisions they designed. Successful designs by the pair include Lambda Chair for Gavina (1959), Doney 14 for Brionvega (1962)—the first fully-transistor television—the Grillo Telephone for Siemens (1966), and a series of mobile housing units for the landmark Italy: The New Domestic Landscape exhibition at MoMA in New York in 1972. Designs in Zanuso’s architectural repertoire include the Olivetti factory buildings in Buenos Aires and São Paulo (1955-57), the IBM factory buildings in Milan (1974), and the Piccolo Theater in Milan (1998).

As a designer who was dedicated to optimizing industriali production, Zanuso’s rationalist designs embrace experimental materials that are fully exploited to improve market accessibility. Characterized by bright colors, synthetic materials, and sculptural shapes, his work brought vanguard concepts to mass-produced consumer products. Notably, he also served as editor for both Domus and Casabella magazines. Winner of five Compasso d’Oro prizes between 1956 and 1985, Zanuso’s designs can be found in many permanent collections, including MoMA New York, the Triennale in Milan, and the Arflex Museum in Italy.

Zanuso passed away in Milan in 2001.

Italian furniture manufacturing company Poltronova was founded just north of Florence by Sergio Cammilli in 1957. Cammili had a background in art, and many believe it was the founder’s remarkable openness to bold creative expression that led the company to become one of the most daring in 20th-century Italian design.

Soon after launching, Cammilli was introduced to young designer Ettore Sottsass, who was at the time designing ceramics for Bitossi, also located in the region around Florence. By 1958, Sottsass was hired to be Poltronova’s artistic director.

In the early years, Poltronova concentrated on producing stylish, modernist furniture, often made in wood and sharing many features in common with midcentury designs from Scandinavia. Both Cammilli and Sottsass, however, had ambitions to do something more experimental.

In 1966, Cammilli and Sottsass visited the Superarchitettura exhibition, presented at Galleria Jolly 2 in Pistoia. This era-defining project was organized by Superstudio and Archizoom—two counterculture student groups from the University of Florence’s Faculty of Architect; it’s now seen to be a landmark moment in the development of Radical Design movement. Cammilli and Sottsass immediately changed the direction of the Poltronova, began working with young, iconoclastic designers, and helped to usher in the postmodern era in design.

Notably, Archizoom designed the company’s new factory in the 1960s and programed events at the headquarters, which included a poetry reading and meditation workshop led by poet Allen Ginsberg.

Poltronova produced a number of iconic designs, such as Mario Cerruli’s Mobili Nella Valle Series (1966); Archizoom’s Superonda Sofa (1967) and Mies Lounge  (1969); Superstudio’s Guerpe Lamp (1967); Ettore Sottsass’s Ultrafragola (1970); and De Pas D’Urbino & Lomazzi’s Joe Chair (1970), to name a few. Other major designers who have designed for Poltronova include Gae Aulenti, Angelo Mangiarotti, Giovanni Michelucci, Paolo Portoghesi, and Massimo Vignelli. Many Poltronova works were included in MoMA’s landmark 1972 exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.

After Cammilli and Sottsass left Poltronova in the 1970s, the company’s management changed hands a number of times, and the focus switched to producing more commercial collections. By the mid-1980s, Poltronova was struggling to survive. Thankfully Roberta Meloni, trained architect, stepped in to advocate for the preservation of the Poltronova archive. She acquired a managing interest in the 1990s, and in the new millennium she was named CEO. Today Poltronova’s legacy has been secured through Meloni’s company Centro Studi Poltronova, a multifaceted organization that manages archives, promotes study and public exhibitions, and produces iconic Poltronova designs on a made-to-order basis.

You can find our interview with Ms. Meloni here.

 * All images courtesy of Centro Studi Poltronova