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July 27 - August 3,2003 |
Leading By Example
Legendary Italian designer Marco Zanuso set benchmark
By Mark Curtis
Originally Published: 2003-06-15
He was a designer who believed that successfully conceived objects had a stand-alone quality to them. But with creations such as the "Lady" armchair and the "Doney 14" television set, Milan's Marco Zanuso designed objects that not only stood out in a single space, but set new standards for Italian design. Zanuso was a major contributor to the mid-20th century Italian design movement, along with peers such as Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglione, which led to the country's emergence as an international design powerhouse.
One of the earliest indications of Zanuso's talents for modern furniture design and materials exploration occurred in 1948, when the young architect entered a low-cost furniture competition presented by New York's Museum of Modern Art. Competing against fellow future design legends such as the American Charles Eames and Robin Day of Britain, Zanuso proposed a metal frame chair with a fabric seat attachment which was judged to be particularly innovative.
Back home in Italy, his talents did not go unnoticed. Tire manufacturer Pirelli had developed a new foam rubber called "gommapiuma" and the company was anxious to apply the new product to furniture design. Pirelli enlisted Zanuso and the designer created his "Antropus" chair for the tire company's new venture. Their big breakthrough, however, came at the 1951 Milan Triennale, which marked the debut of both Pirelli's new furniture company, arflex, and Zanuso's Lady armchair. Lady earned first prize at the exhibition. "One could revolutionize not only the system of upholstery, but also the structural manufacturing and formal potential," Zanuso said of working with gommapiuma. "Our prototypes acquired visually exciting and new contours with industrial standards that were previously unimaginable."
Beyond the technical innovation, Lady featured an organic form, including kidney-shaped armrest elements, which was an immediate international success and has since become emblematic of a playful style associated with 1950s furniture and graphic design. Milan-based arflex continues to produce the Lady armchair. Its metal structure is combined with injection moulded polyurethane foam padding and a polyester fibre with adhesive velveteen. The chair's reinforced elastic strap springing, another Zanuso innovation, continues to be an integral part of this legendary design.
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