Franco Albini Catalogue by Nilufar
Over the weekend I was pretty lucky to stumble across this amazing imagery that features Franco Albini’s works, some from the past and others that are more recent. I’ve actually discussed Mr Albini before when I pointed out his beautiful desk produced in 1958 by the one and only Knoll. This specific imagery comes from a catalogue produced by Nilufar, an Italian design gallery, who put together some vintage Franco Albini photography alongside some newer items which are held at their headquarters in Milan.
Franco became quite well-known for his timeless furniture but he originally studied as an architect in Milan, something that seems to be a link for a lot of the best designers. He got heavily involved with the craftsmanship side of things when he had to work with various cabinet-makers as an apprentice at an architect office owned by Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia. His travels across to Barcelona made him discover the works of Mies van der Rohe, and in Paris he visited the studio of Le Corbusier, all of these experiences got him heavily influenced by the Modern Movement.
So as you can see above and below we’ve got some amazing forms that he’s produced over the years, a real classic one is the Luisa chair which you can see below and in a couple of the images further down. This specific chair nearly took fifteen years of development to get to the final version, it never quite fitted the demands of Franco and he was always looking at the purity of composition. It also came down to the fact that this specific chair was research which was aimed at simplifying the components of a chair, he definitely succeeded in my opinion. The way the legs fall and the angles that are created both from the front and the side on view are spectacular. Good job Franco!
Obviously have a browse below and see what you think, if you want to see more head towards the Nilufar website which has a catalogue page that features the Franco Albini edition. Unfortunately I can’t read Italian so it’s a no go in terms of getting any education from it but I’m sure you can still have a browse through the imagery and enjoy these magnificent pieces of design.
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Clare Pirie
Very beautiful post…thanks for sharing these pictures.