Sculptured form meets functionality

Rational approach perfected in work of legendary Italian designer Enzo Mari

One indication of a designer's greatness is that he or she is admired and respected not only by peers, but also by designers and manufacturers of succeeding generations. This is certainly the case with Italy's Enzo Mari, who, now in his early 70s, continues to produce design work with characteristic rigour.
Mari debuted as a designer in the 1960s, when he created a series of understated plastic products for Milan-based home and office accessories manufacturer Danese. His work for the Milan manufacturer helped to legitimize the use of plastic for consumer products. The self-taught Mari expanded his portfolio in the 1970s with furniture and lighting designs, but when the colourful Memphis movement swept through the design world a decade later, Mari's quiet work was temporarily out of favour. The 1990s return to minimalism, however, reinforced the Italian designer's importance as a thoughtful creator of products. Mari calls his work "rational design," an approach "elaborated or constructed in a way that corresponds entirely to the purpose or function" of a design. He has hardly ignored an object's aesthetic, however. Mari's best work exhibits a purity of form.
Likely his most famous works are his now-classic designs for Danese, including the 16 Animals children's puzzle, the iconic Timor desk calendar and the sculptural and functional In Attesa wastebasket. In the mid-1980s, Mari designed the Tonietta cast-aluminum chair for Zanotta, a design that has been called pure perfection.
The veteran designer recently collaborated with two like-minded clients. Muji is a Japanese company that designs, manufactures and retails popular lines of utilitarian goods for daily living. Its low-key and low-cost approach dovetails nicely with Mari's minimalist ways. He designed two tables for Muji; one is all wood, and the other features a glass top on a metal frame. Both exhibit Mari's dedication to an object's functionality. The designer also created two new chairs for the Japanese design company. While one is relatively straight-forward, the other commands some attention for a seat and frame made of a single piece of bent plywood.
When Italian furniture company Poltrona Frau purchased the legendary Thonet brand of Vienna in 2001, Mari was handed the challenge of creating a new Thonet series, which would both honour the brand's past and ensure continuing relevance. (In the mid-19th century, Viennese furniture manufacturer Michael Thonet introduced mass production to the industry with his line of steam-bent wood furniture.) Mari responded with a chair available in three versions - stacking, dining and rocking. The aluminum chair frame is designed with a varying thickness to provide needed strength at key points while retaining a visual lightness. In a material reprise of the Muji project, the Thonet seat and backrest are combined in one bent-wood shell. New Thonet tables by Mari include a glass surface resting on a wood base and a marble top supported by a bent-iron ring and four thick, wooden legs. Like much of the designer's work, the Thonet lines are subtle and precise.
"If a form is the only possible form, then the object is. If the form 'seems,' then the wrong path has been taken," Mari says. Legend has it that the Italian designer - an accomplished teacher and fine artist as well - once spent the better part of a year contemplating the design of an ashtray. Colleagues loved the resulting design, but it was a commercial flop and Mari's only reward was a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. The details of this episode may have been exaggerated, but few question Enzo Mari's career-long quest to create beautiful, useful designs.

Publication Date: 2005-04-03
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5066