Marco Zanuso

Marco Zanuso

Marco Zanuso, born 1916 in Milan, studied architecture at the famous Politecnico di Milano from 1935 to 1939. From 1945 he worked as an independent designer, architect and city planner in his own design studio. From 1946 to 1947 he worked as an editor for the architecture magazine Domus and until 1949 for the magazine Casabella. For the Arflex company founded by Pirelli Zanuso devoted himself 1948 to the development of upholstered furniture made of the innovative latex foam material and its industrial manufacturing processes. This resulted in some of his first furniture designs for Arflex, such as the Antropus (1949) and Lady (1951) armchairs and the Triennale sofa. The Lady armchair won the first price of the Grand Prix of the Triennale di Milano and is considered a furniture classic. The furniture manufacturer Zanotta still produces the timeless and extremely comfortable luxury armchair Maggiolina with high-quality leather cover, which Marco Zanuso created in 1947.

From 1958 to 1977 the German industrial designer Richard Sapper worked with Marco Zanuso and together they designed some innovative and successful furniture, lights and electronic devices, including for the manufacturers Brionvega and Siemens. Their outstanding projects include the Lambda chair for Gavina (1959-1964) made of stamped steel, the stackable children's chair 4999 / S made of polyethylene for Kartell (1961-1964), the iconic hinged radio cube TS502 for Brionvega (1964) or the TV sets Doney, Algol and Black Box (1964-1969).

Marco Zanuso was a founding member of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) in 1956 and served as its president from 1966 to 1969. As an architect Marco Zanuso participated in prestigious projects, including the Olivetti factory building in Buenos Aires and São Paulo and several IBM factory buildings in Segrate, Milan and Palomba. Furthermore he taught at the Milan Polytechnic from 1961 to 1991.

Through his experiments with innovative materials and industrial manufacturing methods, Marco Zanuso secured himself a prominent place in the history of italian design and is considered as one of the fathers of italian industrial design. Many of his works are now exhibited in museums such as the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) or the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

Marco Zanuso died 2001 in Milan.

Foto: Courtesy Oluce

Marco Zanuso: Popular Lights & Lamps Collections