Carlo Mollino (1905 – 1973) Italian architect and designer

Carlo Mollino Automobile
Carlo Mollino Automobile

Carlo Mollino (1905 – 1973) was an Italian architect and designer. He was born in Turin.  

Today, Carlo Mollino seems just as important as when he was alive. The designer left his mark on the world of industrial design of the 20th century through one of a kind objects, incorporating new techniques and materials produced rather than batch productions in the form of collector’s items. With countless artists and designers following in the footsteps of an innovator who cherished craftsmanship over mass manufacturing, his reputation as an artisan lives today.

Education

He studied engineering; 1929, art history, at the Ghent art school.

Royal School of Architecture, University of Turin, to 1931. 

Biography

He began his career as an architect in his father’s office in Turin. Later he worked independently but stayed in his father’s office. 

His 1944 residence of Ada and Cesare Minola in Turin illustrated his ‘Streamline Surrealism’ style. His 194 7 ‘House of the Sun’ was built in Cervinia. His work contrasted with the more Rationalistic designs emerging from Milan at this time. Influenced by the organic forms reproduced in issues of Domus in the late 1940s, such as Henry Moore’s sculptures, his fantastic designs for furniture reflected these shapes.

Most of his essential furniture was made at the Apelli & Varesio joinery in Turin. He was also influenced by Antonio Gaudi’s works, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charles Eames, Le Corbusier, and Alvar Aalto. He executed a series of glass tables with one-piece bent-plywood bases and chairs in organic forms. 

Style

He favoured organic forms, albeit dedicated to pursuing a contemporary design idiom, rather than the rectilinear forms often associated with the International Style and its Italian counterpart, Rationalism. Instead, he looked at sources such as Art Nouveau’s fluid lines, Futurism and modern Surrealism, several features that influenced the furniture designs he started working on from 1937 onwards. With countless artists and designers following in the footsteps of an innovator who cherished craftsmanship over mass manufacturing, his reputation as an artisan lives today.

Wide-ranging work

His wide-ranging work included aeronautics, art, photography, set design, town planning, teaching, automobile bodies, clothing, furniture, interior decoration, and architecture. Much of his furniture and furnishings was site-specific and one of a kind, executed in glass and bentwood (furniture), plastic rods (lamps), and industrial materials (shelving) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A sense of decadent kitsch pervaded his work. He used natural and artificial light, mirrors, water, and giant images. 

Works

He designed; 

  • 1950-60 flats in Turin, 
  • 1950 house in San Remo, Teatro Regio in Turin 
  • Furnishings for a bachelor’s apartment in Turin
  • Furnishings for MUSA 
  • Housing and the Casa de Sole in Cervinia, 
  • The radio pavilion of the AGIP stand.
  • Exhibitions for art, sports and cars. 
  • 1950-60, he produced prototypes, few of which were manufactured. 
  • He patented articulated lamps with Birri, 
  • cupboard-and-panel systems, and cold-bent plywood (used in his furniture). 
  • He designed three-legged stools.
  • Fold-up and transforming furniture, and the 
  • 1954 Osca automobile. 

He was a member of ADI (Associazione per il Designo Industriale).

Works

Exhibitions

He showed his work at the;

  • 1954 (X) and 1957 (XI) Triennali di Milano. 
  • He won the Reed and Barton cutlery competition. 
  • A Mollino chair was-included in the 1983-84 ‘Design Since 1945’ exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 
  • His work was the 1989-90 exhibition ‘Carlo Mollino 1905-1973’ at Galerie du CCI, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1989-90. 

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Person. (2019, June 18). Carlo Mollino, the Provocateur Par Excellence. ELLE Decor. https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a20652940/carlo-mollino-biography-eng/.

Woodham, J. M. (2006). A dictionary of modern design. Oxford University Press.

Additional Reading

Bosoni, G. (2008). Italian design. MoMA.

Burigana, A., & Ciampi, M. (2006). Italian designers at home. Seagull Books.

Celant, G., & Strauss, C. (2020). Radical: Italian Design 1965-1985: The Dennis Freedman Collection. The Museum of Fine Arts.

Lees-Maffei, G., & Fallan, K. (2014). Made in Italy rethinking a century of Italian design. Bloomsbury.

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  • Vittorio Introini (b.1935) Italian designer and architect

    Vittorio Introini (b.1935) Italian designer and architect

    Vitorio Introini (b.1935) is an Italian architect. town planner, industrial designer and teacher. Education He studied architecture at the PolitecnicoRead More →

  • Nani Prina Italian Architect and Graphic Designer

    Nani Prina Italian Architect and Graphic Designer

    Nani Prina is an Italian architect and industrial and graphic designer. He was born and professionally active in Milan. HeRead More →

  • Osvaldo Borsani (1911 – 1985) Italian furniture designer and architect

    Osvaldo Borsani (1911 – 1985) Italian furniture designer and architect

    Osvaldo Borsani was born in Varedo Switzerland at the crossroads of craft and modern manufacturing. The son of a cabinetmaker, he trained as an architect in Milan in the 1930s, when the city was a centre of technological advancement and flourishing artistry, with the economic momentum to push both at speed.Read More →

  • “The Structures Tremble” Table 1979 by Ettore Sottsass

    “The Structures Tremble” Table 1979 by Ettore Sottsass

    Studio Alchymia was founded in 1976 in Milan as a think tank for designers who rebelled against modernism’s functionalist approach. Their products were intended as prototypes or unique exhibits. A perfect example of Alchymia’s philosophy is The Structures Tremble designed by Ettore Sottsass. Read More →

  • Mario Bellini (b.1935) Italy’s most versatile designer

    Mario Bellini (b.1935) Italy’s most versatile designer

    Mario Bellini is one of Italy’s most versatile designers. Trained as an architect, he is known for his furniture and industrial design work. The new forms he developed for contemporary technology and furniture objects inspired designers internationally.Read More →

  • Rodolfo Dordoni (b.1954) Italian Architect and Designer

    Rodolfo Dordoni (b.1954) Italian Architect and Designer

    he was artistic director of Cappellini International Interiors and in charge of corporate image and communications; from 1982, he was consultant designer for several firms on pavilions, shops, and exhibition stands.Read More →

  • Cristina Coral – Award-Winning Italian Photographer

    Cristina Coral – Award-Winning Italian Photographer

    She has lived her childhood in an artistic environment. She loves to explore the complex relationship between subject and environment. She has collaborated with a variety of magazines and brands.Read More →

  • Rinaldo Petrini ( b. 1931) Italian teacher and designer

    Rinaldo Petrini ( b. 1931) Italian teacher and designer

    1954, LDV Polytechnic, Alessandria, United Arab Emirates, diploma in architecture. 1968 – Master of Science, University of Tennessee. Doctor es Lettres, Paris, LaSorbonne, 1974. Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1973–1974. Postgraduate architectural restoration, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1973–1974.Read More →

  • Pierluigi Cerri (b.1939) Italian Architect/Graphic/Exhibition Designer

    Pierluigi Cerri (b.1939) Italian Architect/Graphic/Exhibition Designer

    He was active as an exhibition designer, designed 1978 ‘Peter Behrens und die AEG’ exhibition, Berlin; 1978 ‘Carrozzeria Italiana’ exhibition, Turin and Rome; 1981 ‘Identité Italienne,’ Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; 1983 ‘Alexander Calder’ exhibition, Turin; 1984 ‘Italian Design,’ Stuttgart and Tokyo; 1984 ‘Venti Progetti per il futuro del Lingotto,’ Turin; 1986 ‘Futurismo e Futurismi,’ Venice.…

  • Pier Luigi Nervi (1891 – 1971) – Italian Architect

    Pier Luigi Nervi (1891 – 1971) – Italian Architect

    After experience with a concrete contractor, he set up his firm in Bologna in 1923. His first structure was a 1927 cinema in Naples: His first important work was the 1930-32 Communal Stadium in Florence, widely published as an early example of Modern architecture. Read More →

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    Tecno Italian Furniture manufacturer

    Tecno an innovative Italian furniture manufacturer was founded By Osvaldo Borsani and Fulgenzio Borsani. The operation had evolved from Atelier Varedo, the workshop of the father in Varedo, and the subsequent small firm Arredamento Borsani. Among other models, it produced Osvaldo Borsani. Among other models, it produced Osvaldo’ Borsani’s successful 1953 p40 chair and 1953…

  • Federico Carandini – Italian Industrial and furniture designer

    Federico Carandini – Italian Industrial and furniture designer

    Carandini is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the modern furniture industry. He is skilled in Strategy, Branding, Line Development, Design Management, Concept Development and Production Management. Strong arts and design professional with a BFA with university honours focused in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University.Read More →

  • Carlo Guiliano (1831 – 1895) Italian Goldsmith and Jeweller

    Carlo Guiliano (1831 – 1895) Italian Goldsmith and Jeweller

    Carlo Guiliano was an Italian jeweller and goldsmith who was born in Naples and worked in London. In 1860, Guiliano settled in London and worked for Harry Emanuel. He collaborated with Castellani Italian Jewellers on at least one piece of jewellery. In the archaeological or Etruscan style, he was a talented jeweller. He developed his…

  • Andrea Branzi (b.1938) Italian furniture designer

    Andrea Branzi (b.1938) Italian furniture designer

    His theoretical furniture is well-known. He formed Archizoom Associati, an avant-garde group in Florence, in 1966 (with Paolo Deganello and others) that brought the irony of 1960s Anti-Design to furniture design.Read More →

  • Elio Martinelli (1922 – 2004) Italian Lighting Designer

    Elio Martinelli (1922 – 2004) Italian Lighting Designer

    He and others founded a lighting company in 1942. In 1956, he founded the lighting firm Martinelli Luce in Lucca, designing plastics and metal and producing a perspex hanging lamp published in La Rivista dell’ Arredamento.Read More →

  • Carlo Bugatti (1855-1940) Italian designer and furniture maker

    Carlo Bugatti (1855-1940) Italian designer and furniture maker

    Carlo Bugatti was a leading figure in Italy’s design and decorative arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bugatti is perhaps best known for his exotic, handmade furniture designs. Many of the 19th century’s progressive developments, notably the British Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau, influenced his work. Read More →

  • Vittorio Gregotti (1927- 2020 ) Italian architect, designer, design historian

    Vittorio Gregotti (1927- 2020 ) Italian architect, designer, design historian

    Vittorio Gregotti (1927- 2020) was an important Italian architect, designer, design historian, theorist and critic, Gregotti was the editor of several leading Italian design journals. He graduated in architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1952. He spent his lifetime working in the field as a practitioner, academic, and writer.Read More →

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Jasper Morrison is a British designer, and he was born and active in London. Education Between 1979-82 he studied at the Kingston School of Art and Design. Between 1982-85, Royal College of Art, London. Biography Morrison produced quirky, satiric, understated furniture. His 1986 South Kensington flat was widely published in

Steven Brooks American Industrial Designer – Encyclopedia of Design

Brooks Stevens was an American industrial designer. He was born in Wisconsin and was active in Milwaukee. He studied at Cornell University in Utica, New York. In 1933, to overhaul machinery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Stevens set up his workshop. In 1936 he designed the first electric clothes drier.

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