Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
The Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti will forever be best remembered for her work with museums, in particular her 1980–86 renovation of a Beaux Arts Paris train station to create the galleries of the Musée d’Orsay. Aulenti — whose first name, short for Gaetana, is pronounced “guy” — should also be recalled for her tough intellectual spirit and for working steadily when few women found successful architectural careers in postwar Italy.
After she graduated from the Milan Polytechic in 1954, Aulenti opened an architectural office. She also joined the staff of the progressive architectural magazine Casabella, whose editorial line was that the establishment, orthodox modernism of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, had outlived it usefulness. When their movement for fresh approaches to architecture and design received a sympathetic hearing, Aulenti found patrons — most prominently Gianni Agnelli, of Fiat, who later employed her to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice for use as an arts exhibition space.
Commissions for showrooms and other corporate spaces brought Aulenti to furniture design. She felt that furniture should never dominate a room. Her chairs and sofas — low-slung, with rounded enameled metal frames and ample seats — and tables, particularly her 1972 marble Jumbo coffee table for Knoll, project solidity and sturdiness. In lighting design, however, Aulenti is bravura.
Each work has a marvelous sculptural presence. Pieces such as her Pipistrello table lamp and Quadrifoglio pendant are a perfect marriage of organically shaped glass and high-tech fixtures. Others have a futuristic elegance — and some even have a touch of personality. Aulenti’s Pileino and La Ruspa table lamps each look almost like little robots. Her lighting pieces are an artful grace note in the career of a woman who believed in strength.
Find vintage Gae Aulenti armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
1960s Italian Space Age Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Chrome
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Leather, Walnut
1960s Italian Space Age Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Chrome
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Leather, Walnut
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Velvet, Wood
1970s European Post-Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
20th Century English Edwardian Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Leather
1970s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Chrome
Late 20th Century Swiss Mid-Century Modern Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Leather, Wood
Late 20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Faux Leather, Wood
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
1970s Italian Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
20th Century English Chesterfield Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Leather
1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Fabric, Walnut
1970s Italian Space Age Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Textile, Wool, Mohair
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gae Aulenti Living Room Sets
Metal