ABOUT
Andrea Branzi. In the 1960s, in a region such as Tuscany which produced literally nothing in the field of design, Poltronova had all the best on its team: not just Ettore Sottsass, who was its art director, but Gae Aulenti, Paolo Portoghesi, Giovanni Michelucci, Angelo Mangiarotti, the Archizoom and Superstudio groups, De Pas-D’Urbino-Lomazzi; not just the mentors, but also the leading exponents of New Design who were then called radicals…
Moving away from Dino Gavina and the Danish aristocracy, who in the early ’60s created the first niche of top quality brands, right from the start Sergio Cammilli adopted a different, experimental method, bringing together the polycentric soul of Italian design and its contradictions and opposing trends. He was convinced –and today we see he was right– that this complexity was the very source of the unity and vitality of this extraordinary phenomenon.
Cammilli immediately put together, in the same catalog, Archizoom’s anarchic works and Angelo Mangiarotti’s Cub8 (the first Italian “equipped wall”), the postmodern experiments by Paolo Portoghesi and Ettore Sottsass’s irreverent archetypes.It was as if to say: everything and the opposite of everything, foreseeing the breaking up of the markets and of tastes that ten years later would be called post-industrial.
POLTRONOVA ADVENTURE
Gianni Pettena. Furniture filters its own time, absorbing and retaining the ingredients, the dust of cosmic wind. A solar wind of intense emotions and considerations, from when we discovered that, having learned the lesson after being immersed in the milky pool of reason, it is possible, pleasurable, necessary, to bask in colors, emotions, and sensuality.
And thus play and irony also emerge, watching oneself work gazing down from silent flight in a hot-air balloon. Anger, violence, frustrating waits and pursuits do not enter in Poltronova’s world of design, which gathers and filters those who conceive dreams of precise balance, of the quiet condition of thought. And over the years, soft warm memories and timeless ideas accumulate and resurface, walking across warm sand, far from the din.
Ettore seems to have opened this door (or this window) because many of us – convinced (he had already been there) by the light, the color.Poltronova came into being in an old Fiat Topolino, in which Sottsass and Cammilli spent a lot of time traveling down roads that ended up leading them to invent an atmosphere infused with a fragrant world of enchanted objects.
And the material that once again illuminated the world of design – went through that door and we took our own individual paths, grateful to him for having shown us that there, on that side, it was possible to move through the world of design and architecture without losing pieces of ourselves, our desires, and our world of thoughts and emotions along the way.The parties, openings on the terrace, surrounded by new furniture creations.
The excitement continued with chasing girls, listening to Ginsberg talk or watching Warhol’s first films. And a lot of travel companions along the way, from Gae Aulenti to Mangiarotti, Michelucci and then the “Radicals” Archizoom and Superstudio, and also Ruffi, Nespolo, Ceroli, and Max Ernst, artists sketching a dream in the form of domestic space, and Portoghesi, the Vignellis, Jonathan de Pas, Enzo Mari.
With Stefano Baldi and Biagio Cisotti after Cammilli left, and also Nigel Coates, Ron Arad, Prospero Rasulo, Piero Derossi, and Franco Raggi, who continue this long journey, always looking ahead to our future.Sergio Cammilli’s adventure began with Ettore Sottsass, and in those years it couldn’t have happened any other way. They were united by having different backgrounds and experiences, but similar desires.
Sergio Cammilli’s adventure began with Ettore Sottsass, and in those years it couldn’t have happened any other way. They were united by having different backgrounds and experiences, but similar desires. And the first pieces of furniture produced show how one could escape the rationalist perspective and rediscover colors, materials, and decorative details.
CENTRO STUDI POLTRONOVA
ROBERTA MELONI
The Centro Studi Poltronova was created in 2005 for two reasons: to archive important documents associated with the original Poltronova Company, and also to make some of its more iconic furniture and lighting pieces available in the marketplace. On these pages you won’t find the elaborate ranges of most other design companies; what you will find is a roster of masterpieces – axiomatic products from the role call of design.
The designers of each of these objects channels a personal vision of the world and how to live in.Like a well-cut diamond, every piece flashes with unselfconscious freedom; it releases a depth charge that goes straight to your emotions. Together they constitute a micro-history of italian design. But any historical significance is way outstripped by their sheer power.
Each and every piece is as seductive today as the moment it first appeared.Thanks to all the famous names herein and the masterful ones to come, we proudly do justice to these objects by telling their stories one by one, and by manufacturing them with equal amounts of passion, quality, and care.Our mission is to make some of Poltronova more iconic furniture and lighting pieces available in the marketplace.
DESIGNERS
SUPERSTUDIO
1967 — 1978 Designed for Poltronova Gherpe, Ofelia, Spera, Vanitas, Passiflora, Sofo, T01, T02Superstudio, founded in Florence in 1966 at the Faculty of Architecture, initially consisted of Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, who were later joined by Roberto Magris [in 1967], Piero Frassinelli [in 1968], Alessandro Magris [in 1970] and Alessandro Poli [from 1970 to 1972].
Superstudio’s experimental activity began when it took part in the show Superarchitettura [1966] organised together with Archizoom. That experience, thanks to the encounter with Poltronova, gave birth to the lamp Passiflora and the couch Sofo. Design d’invenzione e design d’evasione [“Domus” 475, 1969], Istogrammi d’architettura [1969] and Monumento continuo were published between 1968 and 1969. Still in 1969, the group took part in the Graz Biennale with the theme Architecture and Freedom.
ETTORE SOTTSASS JR.
1917 - 2007: Designed for Poltronova Ultrafragola, Asteroide, Barbarella, Superbox, Mobili grigi, Pranzo aromatico, Yantra, Nefertiti, Malatesta, Califfo, Crazy horseEttore Sottsass jr. was born in Innsbruck in 1917, and graduated from the Turin Politecnico in 1939.In 1946, he started working with the magazine “Domus” and in 1947, he opened a professional office in Milan for architecture and design projects.
In 1958, he became a consultant to Olivetti, where he won four Compasso d’Oro. Starting in 1967, for twenty years he was art director for Poltronova in Agliana, where, among other items, he created Mobili Grigi presented at Eurodomus in 1970, which included Ultrafragola. Poltronova would be the privileged place of encounter with the young Radical Vanguard, including Archizoom Associati, Superstudio, UFO, Gianni Pettena.
ARCHIZOOM ASSOCIATI
1966 — 1974: Designed for Poltronova Mies, Sanremo, Superonda, Tizio Caio SempronioThis group, founded in Florence in 1966 by Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello and Massimo Morozzi, followed in 1968 by Dario and Lucia Bartolini, was one of the most authoritative voices of the whole radical architecture movement.
Together with Superstudio, in 1966, they organised the show Superarchitettura. In 1968, they took part in the 14th Triennale with the Centro di Cospirazione Eclettica project; in 1972, they took part in the show Italy: The New Domestic Landscape at the New York MoMA, and in 1973 they founded Global Tools together with the main representatives of the radical area.
CRISTIANO TORALDO DI FRANCIA
1941 – 2019; Designed for Poltronova Aurora BorealeCristiano Toraldo di Francia was born in Florence in 1941.After High School he enrolled at the University where he graduated in Architecture in the academic year 1967-68 with a thesis entitled “Holiday machine on the Calabrian coast,” which next year was published by Domus n ° 479 and JID n ° 170: its drawings are now part of Centre Pompidou and MAXXI collections.
In December 1966 he founded Superstudio with his colleague Adolfo Natalini and participated in the first exhibition of Superarchitettura, which was documented by Domus and Architectural Design and was rebuilt for the exhibit at Galleria Carla Sozzani in April 2007 in Milan.
FRANCO RAGGI
1945: Designed for Poltronova Canton,Born in 1945 in Milan, where he graduated in architecture at the Politecnico in 1969. Editor of the magazines “Casabella” [1971—76] and “MODO” [1980—83]. In 1973, for IDZ [Internationale Design Zentrum] in Berlin, he set up the first critical show on Radical Italian Design.
As author and designer, he took part in several shows, including: Assenza Presenza [Bologna 1978], Cinquant’anni di architettura italiana [Milan 1979], La neomerce [Milan—Paris 1985]. In 1983, for the 17th Triennale of Milan, he designed and set up the show Le case della Triennale.
LELLA AND MASSIMO VIGNELLI
1960 — 2014: Designed for Poltronova Saratoga Lella Vignelli, born Elena Valle [Udine 1934 — New York 2016], and Massimo Vignelli [Milan 1931 — New York 2014], lived and worked together for sixty years. In 1957, they got married and moved to work in the USA, with study grants from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge and from the Institute of Design, Illinois.
In 1959, Elena joined Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Chicago, as junior designer. In 1960, they went back to Milan, where they founded an office dealing with graphics, corporate identity, industrial design. Clients included: Olivetti, Pirelli, Poltronova [Saratoga group 1965—71], Penguin Books, the Triennale in Milan, the Biennale of Venice, Feltrinelli.
RON ARAD
1951: Designed for Poltronova Split Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv in 1951. He studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art [1971—73] and at the London Architectural Association [1974—79]. In 1989, with Caroline Thorman, he founded Ron Arad Associates. He was professor of Design at the Vienna Hochschule from 1994 to 1997 and has been professor of Furniture Design at the London Royal College of Art since 1997.
Always at the Royal College of Art, he is professor of Product Design. Leading museums and art galleries around the world have hosted his works, which are also part of the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in Londra and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.
NIGEL COATES
1949: Designed for Poltronova Plasma, Gallino Architect, designer and author, born in 1949. He studied at Nottingham University and then with the Architectural Association. A radical architect, he sees the city as a living being. In 1984 he published the manifesto—magazine “NATO” [Narrative Architecture Today].
Art and literature play an important part in many of his designs. Coates has designed and made interiors, shows and buildings around the world. These include: Caffè Bongo, The Wall, Noah’s Ark and Art Silo in Japan; the National Centre for Popular Music [today The Hub], Powerhouse::uk and the Geffrye Museum in the UK.
HANS HOLLEIN
1934 — 2014: Designed For Poltronova Mitzi He was one of the most influential architects of the second half of the 20th century in Europe. In 1956 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, in 1958/59 he continued his studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology with Mies van der Rohe and, in the following year, at the College of Environmental Design, University of California.
He worked at various architectural firms in Sweden and the United States before returning to Vienna, where he opened his own practice in 1964. With Walter Pichler in 1967 he signed the manifesto Alles ist Architektur (Everything is Architecture) in which he expressed his desire to design by including criteria taken from the world of the arts: from furniture design to house construction, to urban planning as urban design.
DE PAS, D’URBINO, LOMAZZI
1966: Designed for Poltronova Joe, Joe Ball, Cessato Allarme Studio De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi was set up in 1966. The architect De Pas died in 1991. In the 1960s and ’70s, the studio focused especially on creating temporary furniture and architecture, featuring the use of advanced signs, materials and industrial technologies, for example pneumatic structures for the Milan Triennale, and took part, with works and installations, in many shows in this field.
From the 1970—80s on, the studio has been making industrial and residential buildings, obtaining many awards and acknowledgements. Works by the three architects can be found in the design collections of several museums, including: the MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin and Zurich, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo del Design of the Milan Triennale.
BETHAN LAURA WOOD
1983: Designed for Poltronova Terrazzo Bethan Laura Wood has been running a multidisciplinary studio since 2009, characterised by research into materials, collaborative craftsmanship and a passion for colour and detail. Residences and place—based projects have become an important factor in her design process.
Bethan is fascinated by the connections we make with the everyday objects around us, exploring these relationships and questioning how they can become cultural vehicles. She is interested in critical approaches to achieving sustainability within the mass consumption and production driven design industry context.
GIANNI PETTENA
1940: Designed for Poltronova Rumble Gianni Pettena is an architect, artist, critic and architectural historian. Co-founder and inspirer in the late 1960s of the Italian Radical Architecture movement, from which much of the contemporary experimentation in the field of architecture and design originated, he carries out experimental work aimed at eliminating disciplinary boundaries and revisiting and reinventing alphabets and languages through projects, furniture, installations, exhibitions, theoretical writings, essays and texts.
