Joe Colombo: a shooting star of post-war Italian design

Italian designer Joe Colombo Joe Colombo is a leading figure in Italian and international post-war design. Paradoxically, his name may not mean much to the general public, yet he is considered one of the most brilliant exponents of modern design. He is little known because his career was short: born in Milan in 1930, he died of a heart attack aged just 41. Which makes him a myth who lived his life at 100 km/h. First of all, he was an atypical man: a keen painter, jazz musician and occasional ski racer. A painter (in his early days), draughtsman, furniture designer, architect, interior designer and designer of futuristic homes, Joe Colombo produced a phenomenal output in just 20 years, with an extraordinary creative energy. A workaholic who left his mark on the golden age of Italian design, he was a comet passing through the world of design... [caption id="attachment4465" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Source : www.seipp.com www.seipp.com[/caption] Starting his career in the early 1950s by joining the Nuclear Painting Movement founded by Enrico Baj and Sergio d'Angelo in 1951, Colombo produced a series of drawings for a nuclear city (Città nucleare) that prefigured his interest in design. His design career really took off in 1962, when he launched his own design studio in Milan. He contributed to the development of the Italian furniture industry, in which manufacturers and designers worked closely together. But his vision went beyond simply creating a design object. In tune with his time, marked by the values of freedom and social emancipation, Colombo readily projected himself into the future, forgetting the past, and renewed the functions of the home and individual life. He designed furniture that was flexible, modular and transportable, before proposing truly mobile living units in the last years of his life. I n a career as rich as Joe Colombo's, albeit short, it is difficult to single out just a few pieces that celebrate his genius. After his first experiments in painting and his work on iconoclastic projects, such as the commission he received while still a student to design an outdoor television presentation system (10th Milan Triennial, 1954), the designer gained recognition in 1962 with the creation of (with his brother Gianni Colombo), published by O-Luce. Colombo was awarded a gold medal at the XIII Milan Triennale for this elegant lamp, which has become a design classic. The Acrilica lamp consists of a C-shaped Plexiglas convector - a curved line that the designer is particularly fond of - and a lacquered metal base containing a neon tube. [caption id="attachment4466" align="aligncenter" width="321"] Acrilica lamp[/caption] A fertile creator in the world of lighting, Joe Colombo distinguished himself with several models. His Spider lamp from 1965, still produced by O-Luce, demonstrates the designer's genius for creating functional and dynamic objects. More than just a lamp, Spider Spider is a truly innovative system that allows an enamelled reflector to be turned sideways, vertically or horizontally, adapting to a variety of supports to create lamps, floor lamps, hanging lamps and clip-on lamps. In 1967, Joe Colombo won a Compasso d'Oro and an International Design Award for the Spider system. [caption id="attachment4482" align="aligncenter" width="637"] Spider lamp[/caption] Joe Colombo arrived at a pivotal moment in the history of design. A contemporary of Marco Zanusso , Vico Magistretti , Ettore Sottsass , the Castiglioni brothers and Bruno Munari , he was to see the birth and development of the Italian furniture industry, which would establish Italian design as a world benchmark. Colombo worked "all'italiana", meaning that he himself invented technical solutions to adapt new technologies to the function of the object, rather than the other way round. That's how he came to design the 1965 chair, initially made of aluminium, but later manufactured in ABS plastic and then polypropylene (1). It was one of the first seats produced entirely in plastic by Kartell! [caption id="attachment4469" align="aligncenter" width="196"] Universale chair[/caption] Inventive, curious to experiment with new materials, Colombo designed a very recognisable chair two years before the famous Universale Universale: . You may love or hate the imposing shape of the seat, but this was the first chair to use large areas of plastic-reinforced fibreglass. To make it, Colombo borrowed its technology from the naval sector. The self-supporting structure of the seat is placed on a swivel base with a superimposition of upholstered cushions covered in leather. With its enveloping top section, the person sitting in an Elda Elda armchair feels protected, sheltered in his or her "cocoon". [caption id="attachment4470" align="aligncenter" width="261"] Elda armchair[/caption] C olombo was also a visionary, and his own fast-paced life led him to design functional, combinable home furnishings as early as the mid-1960s. In 1964, Joe Colombo developed what he called a "personal container". The aim was to offer multi-functional furniture contained in a hinged container, so that when closed it could be easily transported as a trunk. The designer has come up with a series of wooden containers that include a compartment for personal items, removable mirrors, flexible lamps, electrical sockets for shavers and other utensils, a barometer and thermometer, a calendar and a clock. Colombo's focus on functionality means that the feminine version of the container incorporates a dressing table placed lower down, at seat level, whereas the masculine model has it higher up, in the lid. [caption id="attachment4471" align="aligncenter" width="441"] Source: liveauctioneers.com liveauctioneers.com / Joe Colombo, Personal Container, 1964. An example of a container, with a wardrobe equipped with a record player and radio, a complete bar, an ashtray, a small bookshelf and a rack for newspapers and records[/caption] The Personal Container already foreshadowed the future living units that Colombo would create at the end of his career. Joe Colombo loves things in motion, so his design is all about mobility and modularity. The , is a masterful combination of these two prerequisites. It is based on a modular system comprising 6 vertical elements of different sizes, fixed to aluminium slats. Arranged and extended in a number of ways, the system can be used to create an armchair, an ottoman or a sofa. The project was presented at the XIV Milan Triennial in 1968. [caption id="attachment4472" align="aligncenter" width="533"] Source: interieurites.com interieurites.com / Joe Colombo, Additional Living, 1967. ©theredlist.com[/caption] A good example of Joe Colombo's research into modular furniture can be found in the , created in 1969. Bobby Bobby , with its pivoting tops, is the perfect complement to a design table in an architect's office. Thanks to its large volume and possible extension, it can also be used in the office or at home. The modular trolley is made from injection-moulded ABS plastic. The careful combination of compartments and its discreet appearance have made it a timeless classic, with Colombo even including a compartment for storing rolled or tubular plans. Initially manufactured by Bieffeplast, an Italian company specialising in plastics, it is still produced today by B Line. New York's MoMA has included it in its permanent collection, and the Centre Pompidou also has a copy. Finally, it's hard to mention Joe Colombo without his inimitable "chair", designed in 1969 and perhaps his best-known chair. Four cylinders of different diameters can be assembled in various combinations thanks to steel joints, ranging from high or short armchairs to deckchairs. Sold in a jute bag, the Tube Tube was one of the first examples of furniture that could practically be sold on the shelves! [caption id="attachment4483" align="aligncenter" width="637"] Boby pedestals and Turbo deckchair[/caption] Behind the designer renowned for his creations, Joe Colombo is no less a true architect, and a prolific one at that... You may not be aware of it, but apart from object design, the Italian maestro's career in the field of interior design and the fitting out of exceptional shops and stands includes more than fifty projects between the end of the 1950s and the early 1970s! While Colombo initially designed mobile, modular objects for the home, he realised that indoor living could follow the same revolution. He therefore set about concentrating all domestic services in special units, a kind of "monoblock" whose volume could contain everything that was useful to the user. Joe Colombo thus developed a personalised system for organising life: the purely domestic use of furniture was outdated. [caption id="attachment4475" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Source : artscape.fr artscape.fr / In 1969, Joe Colombo designed the Cabriolet Bed, which he believed would integrate all the functions of the traditional bedroom into a single, multifunctional "night cell".[This very modern vision of the home culminated in 1971, when Colombo presented a highly flexible and dynamic living unit as part of the legendary exhibition "Italy: the New Domestic Landscape" at MoMA in New York. Alongside a handful of fellow Italian designers (Ettore Sottsass , Gae Aulenti , Mario Bellini , Alberto Rosselli , Gaetano Pesce ), Colombo was given carte blanche to present his vision of the modern home. With his Total Furnishing Unit Total Furnishing Unit , he has taken his idea of a self-contained living unit with maximum flexibility to its logical conclusion. The unit is a compact block of individual, combined cells, which Colombo called: Kitchen Kitchen , Cupboard Cupboard , Bed Bed and Privacy and Privacy and Bathroom Bathroom . Each cell could be separated from the block and installed in the room, but could also be used in conjunction with other elements of the block, creating a number of combinations. [caption id="attachment4476" align="aligncenter" width="384"] Source: archimaps.tumblr.com archimaps.tumblr.com / Joe Colombo, Total Furnishing Unit Project, sketch[/caption] The overall effect is surprising, with its pop-yellow colour schemes combined with the most sophisticated technology of the time. The water supply to the kitchen and bathroom is provided by pipes hidden in the ceiling. Coloured lights and other technical devices completed this futuristic living unit. Unfortunately, Joe Colombo never saw the final presentation of his project at MoMA in 1972. He died suddenly on his 41st birthday, 30 July 1971. He was still working on the plan and the colours, and it was his assistant, Ignazia Favata, who completed the project. [caption id="attachment4477" align="aligncenter" width="545"] Source: socks-studio.com socks-studio.com / Joe Colombo, Total Furnishing Unit, 1971-1972. View of the bedroom with 2 beds out[/caption] [caption id="attachment4478" align="aligncenter" width="426"] Source: interieurites.com interieurites.com / Joe Colombo, Total Furnishing Unit, 1971, kitchen cell, ©designboom.com[/caption] In barely twenty years of career, Joe Colombo has left behind a protean body of work. His modern, futuristic designs bear witness to an era of profound industrial and societal change. As such, reference to his work can serve as a common thread for addressing the major trends that marked post-war design and the 60s. Joe Colombo, better than anyone else, embodied the dynamic spirit of the Sixties. With hindsight, we wonder what direction(s) this free and creative spirit would have taken in contemporary design... (1) Written by François Boutard Written by François Boutard Written by François Boutard

Joe Colombo: a shooting star of post-war Italian design

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