<<I had to do, almost always, the design in order to complete or furnish the building I designed and built under a pressure of necessity, which is always a good way look for simplicity, as if I were to build objects designed with the my hands.
A good book on the history of Japan is entitled The nobility of failure and I could paraphrase this assertion by saying that my preference is, in the memory, some of those objects, designed by me, who have not had particular success with the public: a lamp house of Artemis mobile space (1970), with a sofa Cassina horse blanket, folding a library and, finally, the hapless collection Broomstick.
All objects drawn only as an expression of a basic concept that could take different forms (as it has taken in many copies).
It is, perhaps, the way I preferred to draw, because it excludes all formal stylistic concerns even when, as now, my intent is focused on opportunities, as a European, not to forget history and to redesign the borrowing for do not let them die as a species endangered, old models, revised and altered for our use, they become something else in this report and a memory that you could lose, thus putting in place, as in architecture, a particular attention to pre-existing environmental in design. We do not need for this, as Americans, to create us a post-modern>>.
Dies, 19 September 2006, Vico Magistretti
Disappears after a long illness aged 85 Vico Magistretti
Vico Magistretti
"The simplicity of the most difficult thing in the world"
Architect and designer, student of Ernesto Rogers, director of historical Natah Domus magazine, was among the protagonists of Italian Design in the 60s.
Magistretti goes with a glorious era of the last players' "Italian Design", a movement known throughout the world.
Vico Magistretti was one of the most illustrious members of that cultural phenomenon, and production, the Italian design, which began immediately after the war and launched the style of the Italian company in the world. A magical time for the Italian design characterized by the special relationship between manufacturers and designers, based on close collaboration, which has made Italian design a unique phenomenon in the world for its dynamism and durability.
His work covers a period of over fifty years designing some of the most significant products of mass production: chairs, lamps, tables, beds, kitchens, closets, libraries, objects and shapes using reinvented, according to the measured style Magistretti and elegant.
Almost all are still in production and continue to be a bestseller. To confirm that "an object of good design should last a long time, 50 or even 100 years", as claimed by the same Magistretti.
Vico Magistretti was born in Milan October 6, 1920. He studied at the Milan Polytechnic and graduated in Architecture in 1945. Log in Piergiulio father's architecture firm, before opening his own. Architect, urban planner, designer and lecturer. Builds cinemas, hotels, office buildings and homes.
Participated since 1948 in various editions of the Milan Triennale.
In 1956 he was among the founders of ADI, the Association for Industrial Design.
Designs furniture and lamps for Artemide, Gavina, Cassina, Oluchi, De Padua.
He has received many important awards: Gold Medal at the IX Triennial in '51, Golden Compass Eclipse in 1967 with the lamp, the lamp Atoll in '79 and the sofa Cassina Maralunga., Golden Compass career in '95, two gold and silver medals at the Vienna International Möbelsalons 1970; chair gold Möbelsalons Cologne 1982, Gold Medal SIAD (Society of Industrial Artists and Designers) in London in 1986, Gold Medal of the Apostle Design Milan, 1997.
Immediately after the war has been actively involved in the problems of reconstruction, theoretically, through the MSA Movement (Architectural Studies) which he co-founded and practically 1'INA-planning for Home and QT8. He also participates actively in the Triennale, taking care of numerous sections and winning its ninth edition, in 1951, and a gold medal at the X, in 1954, the Granpremio. Among the most significant buildings designed in Milan in this period include the Tower to the Park, in 1953-56, the office building under way in Europe, in 1955-57, and 1'edificio square of Aquileia, 1962-64. Here are some one-family houses, including House Arosio Arenzano in 1958, Schubert Ello Villa in 1960, Bassetti Azzate house in 1960, Gardella Arenzano home in 1963. 1969-71 is the building of the Piazza San Marco. Among the more recent architecture: the Faculty of Biology, Milan, 1978-81, the house in Tokyo Tanimoto, 1985, and the deposit ATM Milano Famagusta, 1989.
Also plans for "De Padua", Fritz Hansen, Camping, Fontana Arte, Fredericia, Kartell. Since 1967 and member of the Accademia di San Luca and the Royal College of Art in London, where he is also a visiting professor.
Among his most famous works include the lamp Atoll (Oluchi, 1977) and the Selene chair.
<<I had to do, almost always, the design in order to complete or furnish the building I designed and built under a pressure of necessity, which is always a good way look for simplicity, as if I were to build objects designed with the my hands.
A good book on the history of Japan is entitled The nobility of failure and I could paraphrase this assertion by saying that my preference is, in the memory, some of those objects, designed by me, who have not had particular success with the public: a lamp house of Artemis mobile space (1970), with a sofa Cassina horse blanket, folding a library and, finally, the hapless collection Broomstick.
All objects drawn only as an expression of a basic concept that could take different forms (as it has taken in many copies).
It is, perhaps, the way I preferred to draw, because it excludes all formal stylistic concerns even when, as now, my intent is focused on opportunities, as a European, not to forget history and to redesign the borrowing for do not let them die as a species endangered, old models, revised and altered for our use, they become something else in this report and a memory that you could lose, thus putting in place, as in architecture, a particular attention to pre-existing environmental in design. We do not need for this, as Americans, to create us a post-modern>>.
From ideas and pencil Vico Magistretti for innovative projects set to revolutionize the production of furniture in Italy, also deeply affected the taste of the Italians and their habits. Thus a new concept of everyday objects that, renewed in the form and use, are destined to become bestsellers around the world.
"In design, what matters is the concept expressed with a sketch."
From a sketch to the concrete form: Magistretti has never made drawings, but drawings that express an idea. Convinced that certain pieces are conceptually clear and so simple that they can be communicated by phone. And the sketches, sometimes randomly drawn on the back of an envelope or on a metro ticket, point to the whole exhibition.
It is his personal way of working, talk with the engineers and producers, for a discussion and an exchange of ideas on the implementation of a product "design also means talking together."
For his training rationalist Vico Magistretti has always been interested in design for mass production, the large number aimed at an audience fascinated by the reproducibility of an object rather than the uniqueness of a single piece.
"In the Sixties series production was a key step for the Italian Design, which has had the good fortune to realize the social criterion of Bauhaus produce furniture for everyone."
And to those who asked what object would you design (interview De Padua) Magistretti responds: "The umbrella". I think that people who invented the umbrella is great. Among other things, at the time, forbade the church to cover her head because this prevented the Almighty to send down water to soak the people.
Why an umbrella?
For the simplicity of the umbrella, the umbrella anything, the tension of the umbrella, making it the object that I would have drawn the most. Instead, I ended up drawing of the diminished light, the Eclipse, but it still lasts, because it marked, even with the burns on his fingers, a few generations. This is a great satisfaction, it gives you a sense of the object product because, evidently, was responding to some need that he had nothing style.