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Franco Albini

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.

Average Sold Price
$2,457
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Iconic Designs from Franco Albini
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Franco Albini Lb7
Franco Albini Lb7
Luisa Chair
Luisa Chair
Franco Albini Fiorenza Chair
Franco Albini Fiorenza Chair
Franco Albini Margherita
Franco Albini Margherita
Franco Albini for Bonacina Bamboo and Rattan Corner Etagere, Italy 1960s
By Bonacina, Franco Albini
Located in Naples, IT
Rattan corner shelf by Franco Albini for Bonacina, Italy 1960, made with bamboo canes and wavy edge. Very good condition.
Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Bamboo, Wicker, Rattan

French 1960s Hanging Lamp Made of Bamboo
By Franco Albini
Located in Oostrum-Venray, NL
French 1960s hanging lamp made of bamboo. Beautiful hanging lamp in the style of Franco Albini, made in France in 1960. Beautiful model and the patina and color of the lamp g...
Category

1960s French Bohemian Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Bamboo

French 1960s Hanging Lamp Made of Bamboo
French 1960s Hanging Lamp Made of Bamboo
H 10.24 in W 18.51 in D 18.51 in
Exclusive Bamboo and Rattan Chaise Lounge Attributed to Franco Albini
By Franco Albini
Located in Oostrum-Venray, NL
Chaise lounge chair made of rattan and bamboo designed in the sixties. Great original condition. Design by Franco Albini, 1960 Italy, also purchased there and the information comes f...
Category

1960s European Bohemian Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Bamboo

Italian Midcentury Franco Albini's 'LB7' Ceiling-Mounted Bookcase, circa 1960
By Franco Albini
Located in Traversetolo, IT
The iconic ceiling-mounted bookcase model 'LB7', designed by the renowned designer Franco Albini around 1960, represents a unique example of refined and functional design. This innov...
Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Brass

Pair of Iconic Margherita Rattan Armchairs by Franco Albini for Bonacina
By Bonacina, Franco Albini
Located in Piacenza, Italy
Beautiful couple of Iconic Franco Albini armchairs model "Margherita" 1951, manufactured by Bonacina. Margherita is considered the first "legless" armchair of Italian design. The p...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Rattan

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

Materials

Brass, Iron

Franco Albini for Bonacina Rattan and Bamboo Wall Mirror, Italy 1960s
By Franco Albini, Bonacina
Located in Naples, IT
Italian rattan wall mirror (circa 1960s) by Franco Albini. The mirror has a complex weave of rattan in a series of horseshoe projections on the edge of the frame. There is a lovely a...
Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan, Mirror

Franco Albini Gala chair by Bonacina, Italy, 1951
By Bonacina, Franco Albini
Located in Chiavari, Liguria
A beautiful chair in bamboo and straw, Gala model, designed by Franco Albini in 1951, produced by Bonacina. The Gala chair, designed in 1951, embodies all the desires for novelty an...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini

Materials

Bamboo, Straw

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Creators Similar to Franco Albini

More Franco Albini Designs
Franco Albini Lb7
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Luisa Chair
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Luisa Chair
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After working for approximately 15 years through several prototypes of the design (one of which was manufactured by Knoll in the late 1940s), the Italian designer, architect and urban planner Franco Albini (1905–77) finished what is considered to be a masterpiece: the Luisa chair. The dignified armchair is upholstered in warm red fabric and named after Luisa Colombini, Albini’s personal assistant and secretary of two decades. Lightweight and initially available in teak, mahogany and beech, th...
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Franco Albini Fiorenza Chair
Franco Albini Fiorenza Chair
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Franco Albini Margherita
Franco Albini Margherita
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Franco Albini furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

Franco Albini furniture 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 furniture, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. We have 173 vintage editions of these items in-stock, while there is 21 modern edition to choose from as well. Many of the original furniture by Franco Albini were created in the mid-century modern style in europe during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Marco Zanuso, Paolo Buffa, and Arflex. Prices for Franco Albini furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $209 and can go as high as $58,000, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $5,981.

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