Coffee with Mirella - Milan at the forefront of design world

Milanese city has always distinguished itself as a vital center of the artisan, industrial and commercial development of our country, especially in the field of design and fashion. A constantly evolving city that has been able to create its own vital space in the modern creative world linked to artistic creativity connected with both industry and commerce.

From the early 1900s to the boom in Italian fashion in the 1980s, it was a continuous first-rate laboratory (Armani is an example). The foundations of this success are due to the industriousness of an entrepreneurial class among the most active in Europe and thanks to a creative force capable of creating new materials never used before.

Since the early 1900s, Milan has been a pioneer in the field of transport and mechanics: here are born brands renowned all over the world (Breda, 1886), Isotta Fraschini (1990), Alfa Romeo (1910), the iconic Scooter Innocenti Lambretta (1947) .

Milan also found success in specialized publishing and international exhibitions, the main example being the Triennale which launched the Rima exhibition (Italian Meeting of Furniture Exhibition) in '47. In fact, a revolution takes place in the Milanese city: an accessible, modern and cultured design is born, an expression of the living and taste of the Milanese middle class. This is how the first internationally renowned Milanese magazines relating to furniture and design were born. We remember among all "Domus" in 1928, "La casa bella" in 1928, "Modern building" in 1929.

In the period of the economic boom (1950s) we find legendary objects born from the collaboration between Design, Small Businesses (in those years) and Crafts.

A first design example object is the very famous Letter 22, designed by Marcello Nizoli for Olivetti (he won the Compasso d'Oro in 1954). Also worth mentioning is the "Mirella" sewing machine, designed by designer Marcello Nizzoli for Necchi, in 1955. Mirella won the "Compasso d'Oro" in 1957 and the "Grand Prix" of the XI Triennale di Milano, and entered the part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

A third legendary object is the Olivetti Elea computer (winner of the Compasso d'Oro in 1959), designed by the architect and designer Ettore Sottsas (he was in Olivetti's service as a designer for twenty years in devising a series of calculators).

Finally, we remember the office desks for Olivetti: the BBPR studio had designed an innovative line of desks exclusively for the company.

The La Rinascente Department Store, which organized the Compasso d'Oro award, awarded the strong development of Italian design in 1954, was then curated by the Industrial Design Association in 1964.

An example is the Torre Velasca erected between 1955 and 1957 by the BBPR studio, today linked to the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage of Milan, but previously judged in a clearly negative way. In fact it was called the skyscraper with braces, but in reality it is the powerful symbol of a post-rationalist and brutalist architecture. The exposed reinforced concrete overcomes the concept of aesthetic beauty by designing environments and spaces that favor socialization as an avant-garde relative to Milanese society. Another example is the Marchiondi Spagliardi Institute, destroyed after the war and rebuilt by the Victorian architect Viganò with exposed red concrete. Brutalism challenges traditional aesthetic values ??by giving the building a functionality with the use of raw and industrial materials that are linked to the modernity of the city.

The Prada foundation created by Miuccia and her husband Maurizio Bertelli in 1993 with the aim of promoting Milanese culture, art and design all over the world can also be included in this current: the author of the project is Rem Koolhaas who he had the ability to transform an early twentieth century distillery into a multifunctional center with exposed steel, white concrete and large windows, with untreated walls (rough and a neglect for an overall aesthetic).

Finally, the famous Milanese architect Giò Ponti between the Second World War and the early 1980s, in the magazine Domus, introduces the brutalist movement, born in England as an architectural movement.

Then we find, in the succession of events, the formal inspiration of many authors to try to combine culture, production and communication.

Let's see for example Marco Zanuso who designs the Radiocubo for Brionvega (1960s).

Gae Aulenti designs the 48/54 chair and the 47/94 armchair for Kartell accompanied by the 48/94 coffee table, an innovative project designed in 1968

The super-light chair produced by the Brianza-based Cassina company in 1957, designed by Giò Ponti, represents a work that took years to perfect it. This chair represents a synthesis of aesthetic as well as economic craftsmanship.

A simple clear chair that still represents a design icon. The chair becomes an emblem of the best connection between design and fashion.

Also for this reason Fimelato will host in its showroom, during this week of design week, the chairs of the "Clouds" series by the Florentine designer Leonardo Pagliazzi. It will be an opportunity to admire a captivating interdisciplinarity, because even if the materials treated are different (wood in the case of Pagliazzi, fabric in the case of Fimelato) the result in both cases testifies to a care and study of the properties of the material.

Attention to the material and craftsmanship are therefore common priorities.