Discussion of Post-World War II Design in Italy

In contrast to designers in most other Western countries, Italians were not generally trained as designers. Instead, post-war Italian design arose out of the architectural tradition. As Anne McGregor Parsons observes, "Nearly all of the members with the group of designers who began practising as independent designers of interiors and industrial goods promptly right after the Second World War have been trained as architects just before the war" (11). Architect Gio Ponti said, "In Venice, God created only the water and also the sky. The remainder was produced by architects" (Bornsen-Holtmann 9).

Finding themselves with few building projects, Italy's architects turned to struggling manufacturers to help the industrialists climb back out from economic ruin. The movement started in Milan. Bornsen-Holtmann writes, "Designers from Milan had been in demand internationally ever since market realised that beautifully created goods can also be sold far more very easily and at greater prices than unattractive ones" (7).

The emphasis on architectural training did not occur only in the architects themselves. As Parsons observes:

The push to attain their reputation as international winners within the type sweepstakes came from Italy's corporation community. Following Globe War II, the country's manufacturers smaller companies by American standards were seeking to compete inside a world market. What they saw were architects coming out of school unemploy

 

Giandomenico Belotti's 1979 "Spaghetti" side chair for Alias, "upholstered" with pasta like strands of PVC (Parsons). All these products share a visual appeal, clean lines, along with a sense of fun that characterize them inside a particular way.

Bornsen-Holtmann, Nina. Italian Design. Trento, Italy: Benedikt Taschen, 1994.

Ironically, leadership was much more on an international than national level. As Sparke writes, "From the early 1960s onwards its impact was felt most strongly from the wealthy quarters of London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. Thus, whilst the production of Italian model is inextricably linked for the economic, social and cultural context of contemporary Italy, its consumption is not" (10).

Architectural training and an eye for three-dimensional structure had been an essential part inside the establishment of a uniquely Italian vision of design. Peter Dormer argues that post-World War II culture throughout the West reflected a mixture of cooperation and individualism (40). In Italy, the cooperation between designer and manufacturer came together to generate a different aesthetic; Italian-designed objects share a remarkable unanimity that combines clean lines, functionality, and bold playfulness inside a way no other nation was able to obtain so solidly. Bornsen-Holtmann quotes writer and critic Umberto Eco: "If other countries had a theory of design, Italy had a philosophy, possibly even an ideology of design" (5).

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