JOE COLOMBO

Joe Colombo (1930-1971)

 

Joe Colombo is one of the most innovative Italian designer of the 60s.

He first attended the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera and trained as a painter before joining the Politecnico di Milano to study architecture.

As an artist, Colombo was part of the Movimento Nucleare and a member of Art Concret but he turned soon to a design career.

He created innovative furniture using new materials and techniques such as ABS for the Universale chair (1965) or plywood for the 4801 chair (1963), both for Kartell.

Colombo was also very interested in creating complete living spaces, modular futuristic units that would fit in open rooms.

The Visiona 1, featured in the Cologne fair in 1969, testified of his vision. The flat was kept without separating walls and functional units were installed for each activity. For the night, the « Night-Cell », for lunch and dinner, the « Kitchen-Box », for the living-room, the « Central-Living ».

It was followed by the « Total Furnishing Unit » (1971), a mono-block cell providing all domestic functions.

Joe Colombo was also deeply involved in lighting.The Acrilica lamp, the Coupé, the Spider (Compasso d’Oro 1967), produced with Oluce, were all enormous technical and commercial successes.