Italian Designers at Home Book

Every day we make use of objects that someone designed to make our lives easier, more comfortable, more pleasant. Chairs, tables, lamps, household appliances, beds, vases, drinking glasses, all things that form part of our domestic routine. Many of the most eye-catching examples of these objects were created by Italian industrial designers. The international success of Italian design is a unique phenomenon and design observers are no doubt familiar with iconic objects like Vico Magistretti's Eclisse lamp for Artemide, Riccardo Dalisi's Neapolitan coffee maker for Alessi or Alessandro Mendini's Poltrona Proust chair. But what happens when they turn their creative energy toward their own homes? How do these "maestros" of design live? Do they make use of the things that they designed for others?The authors of Italian Designers at Home (design journalist Alessandra Burigana, and architectural photographer Mario Ciampi) visited the homes of more than twenty renown Italian designers and asked them about their lifestyles, preferences, and career trajectories. They discovered the designers' routines, surprising passions, and original stories. One of them has a specially made wardrobe for his collection of shirts sewn by hand in London; another has a fear of emptiness and fills up his personal space with collections of all sorts. Another one has a beautiful kitchen but orders macrobiotic meals delivered to his home. One even sleeps in a small cubic structure, at the center of a sixteenth-century living room, because it reminds him of the cozy atmosphere of a passenger-train sleeping compartment.Beautifully illustrated with 280 color photographs, Italian Designers at Home offers a unprecedented look at more than twenty homes styled by the hand of celebrated Italian design professionals including: Aldo Cibic, Andrea Branzi, Denis Santachiara, Cleto Munari, Alessandro Mendini, Dino Gavina, Mario Bellini, Massimo Scolari, Cini Boeri, Enzo Mari, Fabio Novembre, Michele De Lucchi, Bob and Ornella Noorda, Vico Magistretti, Riccardo Dalisi, Martino Gamper, and Ettore Sottsass.Read More