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Franco Albini Shelves

Italian, 1905-1977

While working under the polymath Gio Ponti — arguably the most important figure in 20th-century Italian modernism — furniture designer Franco Albini nurtured a love for modern forms combined with traditional craft techniques.

Albini is widely known for working with organic materials such as rattan and cane for his chairs and other seating, but he also played a pivotal role in the Italian rationalist movement of the early 20th century, which saw architects and furniture makers applying a strict emphasis on geometry in their work. Rationalists drew on Ancient Roman architecture but rejected ornament, much in the way that Le Corbusier and celebrated Bauhaus figures such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had in their modernist furniture.

Albini received his degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1929, and, in 1931, he founded his practice in Milan, where he tackled workers’ housing and other reconstruction projects. A gifted urban planner, he also developed the Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso and Tesoro di San Lorenzo museums in Genoa. While Albini is revered for his Margherita chair — a Triennale Milano award winner created for Bonacina in 1951 — he also collaborated with manufacturers Poggi and Cassina in the 1940s on seating, tables and more that embodied his artistic vision. Of that mid-century work, the one piece that perhaps best captures this vision is the iconic Luisa chair.

With its cherry red upholstery and sinuous wooden legs that seem to float aboveground, the Luisa is a genuine masterpiece. It is also a testament to Albini’s perfectionism, as it endured several prototypes — including one made by Knoll in the late 1940s — and took approximately 15 years to design. Poggi launched the final version of the armchair in 1955, earning Albini the prestigious Compasso d’Oro from Italy’s Association for Industrial Design. It is produced today by Cassina. Albini named the chair for someone who likely saw the process firsthand: his personal secretary of two decades, Luisa Colombini.

Find vintage Franco Albini furniture on 1stDibs.

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Creator: Franco Albini
Franco Albini Rattan and Bamboo Italian Wall Shelf, Italy 1960s
By Franco Albini
Located in Roma, IT
Gorgeous midcentury rectangular wall shelf in curved rattan, bamboo and hand-woven wicker. This charming French Riviera style shelf was designed by Franco Albini and produced in Ita...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan, Wicker

Franco Albini Midcentury Wall Shelf in Curved Rattan and Bamboo, Italy 1960s
By Franco Albini
Located in Roma, IT
Gorgeous Mid-Century wall shelf in curved rattan and bamboo. This stylish organic shelf was designed by Franco Albini in Italy during the 1960s. In amazing conditions and with a cha...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Cane, Rattan

Franco Albini Veliero Bookcase for Cassina, Italy, new
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
Prices vary dependent on the chosen material. The shelf is available in natural ashwood or black stained ashwood with elements in either brass or satin brass chrome. Bookcase desig...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini Midcentury Wall Shelf or Console in Rattan and Bamboo, Italy, 1960
By Franco Albini
Located in Roma, IT
Wonderful midcentury large wall shelf or console in curved bamboo, rattan and hand-woven wicker. This incredibly charming piece was designed by the mastery of Franco Albini and produ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Wicker, Cane, Rattan

Franco Albini Modular Bookcase "Infinito" for Cassina, Italy, new
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
Prices vary dependent on the color, size and material. Modular Bookcase designed by Franco Albini, relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. An extremely flexible bookcase, with myriad modular options, suited to being against a wall or as a room partition...
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini Rosewood Mid-Century Modern “LB7” Modular Bookcase for Poggi, 1957
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Vicenza, IT
LB7 bookcase, designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Poggi in 1957. Modular bookstore composed by upholds, containers with flying and doors, shelve. The industrial standard for every product component allows permanent and different solutions, from the bearing structures to the elements. The structure does not need anchorages to the wall and can be placed in the middle of the space. This set is composed of 3 modules, ten shelves, and three containers. It is made of Rosewood, iron, and brass. Excellent vintage condition. Franco Albini was born in Robbiate in 1905, and after his childhood and part of his youth, he moved to Milan. He graduated at Politecnico of Milan, Faculty of Architecture, in 1929, and He collaborated for three years in Giò Ponti and Emilio Lancia’s office. He probably had his international contacts here, at The International Exposition of 1929 in Barcelona and Paris, where he visited le Corbusier’s office, as Franca Helg used to tell. Throughout these first three years, his works were undoubtedly related to XIXth Century. His meeting with Edoardo Persico marks an evident turnover towards rationalism and writers for “Casabella” magazine. Persico’s thoughtful and ironical comments on some of Albini’s drawings for office furniture caused him deep upsetting. “I spent days of real anxiety – tells Albini – I had to answer all questions. I had a long fever”. The new phase that the meeting provoked begins with opening his own first office at Via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of Architects starts taking care of social housing, participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in 1932, and then realizing the Ifacp neighborhood: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio, and Ettore Ponti (1939). During those years, He also worked for his first private villa (Pestarini). It is mainly in the context of exhibitions that the Italian architect experiments the compromise between rigor and poetic fantasy that Pagano was talking about; He conceived all the elements that would become recurrent in all types of his work – Architecture, Interiors, Design. The 1933 opening of the new Triennale of Milano, in Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an occasion to express the highly innovative character of rationalist thinking. In this place, to experiment with new materials and solutions, but most of all a “method”. Young rationalist architects cultivated the art of exhibiting as a communication lab, an open field to space solutions. Albini, with Giancarlo Palanti, sets the steel structure house (with R. Camus, G. Mazzoleni, G. Minoletti and coordination by G. Pagano) designing also its furniture. For the next Triennale in 1936, marked by Persico’s early death, Franco Albini, together with a group of young architects around Pagano, takes care of the exhibition of Dwelling, where he presented 3 types of lodgings. In the same year, Albini and Romano design the exhibition for Ancient Italian jewelry: vertical uprights, simple linear poles design space. This element is recurring in other works, like the Scipione exhibition (1941), Vanzetti stand (1942), and Olivetti shop in Paris (1956). The architectural space is readable through a grid, introducing a third dimension, the vertical one, with a sense of lightness and transparency. Upright is also used in design objects, such as the Veliero bookcase...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Brass, Iron

Franco Albini 4-Unit Shelving System for Poggi, Italy 1960
By Franco Albini
Located in Amsterdam, NL
A beautiful, 4-unit wide shelving system desined by Franco Albini, manufactured by Poggi in Italy around 1960. This large piece is made of high quality dark stained wood with brass ...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini Bookcase Infinito Wall for Cassina, Italy, new
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
Prices vary dependent on the chosen size and material. Available in: natural ash, black stained ash, American walnut. Different elements and sizes of the bookcase are available, too. Please get in touch. An extremely functional design wall bookcase designed by Franco Albini combines tradition and modernity in an ongoing dialog between materials and technologies. Designed in 1958 after the Infinito double-sided bookcase, Infinito Wall...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Shelves

Materials

Wood

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Franco Albini shelves for sale on 1stDibs.

Franco Albini shelves are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of wood and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Franco Albini shelves, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. We have 5 vintage editions of these items in-stock, while there is 3 modern edition to choose from as well. Many of the original shelves by Franco Albini were created in the mid-century modern style in europe during the mid-20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider shelves by Osvaldo Borsani, Ico Parisi, and Charlotte Perriand. Prices for Franco Albini shelves can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $4,231 and can go as high as $44,574, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $25,244.

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