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Combi Center, Joe Colombo's storage unit for Bernini 1963/1997.

About the Item

Combi Center is a well-known industrial design product born from the creative genius of Joe Colombo, an Italian designer famous for his innovative design vision in the 1960s and 1970s, whose creations had the power to amaze. Combi-Center was created in 1963 and updated in 1997, with production entrusted to the historic company Bernini. Conceived by Colombo as a versatile object, Combi Center was designed as a modular storage unit for optimizing space within living interiors, a key goal of Joe Colombo's design. The underlying idea was to create a flexible system that allowed for efficient and functional organization and separation of space in the domestic environment, with the added capability of mobility (thanks to wheels at the base) to adapt to various spatial and usage needs. Combi Center was composed through the stacking of multiple differently equipped and stackable volumes: a geometric solid in the form of a cylinder with a bar element with sliding doors, a drawer element, a vertical shelving element for books, magazines, and records, and an element with sliding doors for dishes. Aesthetically, it presented itself as a very distinctive object for its time, as Joe Colombo used rosewood combined with curved aluminum, striking a perfect balance between tradition and modernity that highlighted Colombo's innovative industrial vision as early as the 1970s. Combi Center comes with a certificate of authenticity issued by Bernini. Bibliography: L'arredacasa, Ed. edizionale Domus, Year 1969 - Le fabbrieche del design, by G. Gramigna_Ed. Alberto Alessandr & C, page 55 - Year 2007 - Ottagono #30, page 89, Year 1973 - Domus, pages 30/31, Year 1966 - G. Gramigna, Repertorio del designio Italiano, vol.1, page 210, Year 2003 - I. Favata, Joe Colombo and Italian Design of the Sixties, Cambridge, page 66, Year 1988 - Joe Colombo. Inventing the Future, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, page 150, Year 2005 - Domus, March 1966, pp. 30/31 - G. Gramigna, Repertorio del design italiano, Turin 2003, vol.1, p. 210 - I. Favata, Joe Colombo and Italian Design of the Sixties, Cambridge 1988, p. 66 - Joe Colombo. Inventing the Future, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein 2005, p. 150. Designers: Joe Colombo considered himself a "creator of the environment of the future." A versatile man, he was active as a painter, architect, graphic designer, and industrial manager. During the 1960s, against the backdrop of the space race and Pop Art, the Italian industrial designer sought to create design solutions using new materials and sleek, functional forms. Leveraging his family's factory, Joe Colombo conducted experiments with cutting-edge plastics like fiberglass, ABS, PVC, and polyethylene, with the goal of creating mass-produced furniture. In addition to the new materials, Colombo explored the concept of self-assembly, in pieces like modular furniture that could be arranged according to users' desires. His groundbreaking piece was the adjustable Universal Chair, developed in collaboration with Kartell between 1965 and 1967, considered the first chair to be molded from a single material.

Creator:
Joe Colombo (Designer)
Design:
Combi Center Cabinet
Dimensions:
Height: 63.78 in (162 cm)Diameter: 33.47 in (85 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Aluminum,Wood
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1997
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Misinto, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU9226236811212
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Shop All Joe Colombo

Joe Colombo

He died tragically young, and his career as a designer lasted little more than 10 years. But through the 1960s, Joe Colombo proved himself one of the field’s most provocative and original thinkers, and he produced a remarkably large array of innovative furniture, lighting and product designs. Even today, the creations of Joe Colombo have the power to surprise.

Cesare “Joe” Colombo was born in Milan, the son of an electrical-components manufacturer. He was a creative child — he loved to build huge structures from Meccano pieces — and in college he studied painting and sculpture before switching to architecture. In the early 1950s, Colombo made and exhibited paintings and sculptures as part of an art movement that responded to the new Nuclear Age, and futuristic thinking would inform his entire career. He took up design not long after his father fell ill in 1958, and he and his brother, Gianni, were called upon to run the family company. Colombo expanded the business to include the making of plastics — a primary material in almost all his later designs. One of his first, made in collaboration with his brother, was the Acrilica table lamp (1962), composed of a wave-shaped piece of clear acrylic resin that diffused light cast by a bulb concealed in the lamp’s metal base. A year later, Colombo produced his best-known furniture design, the Elda armchair (1963): a modernist wingback chair with a womb-like plastic frame upholstered in thick leather pads.

Portability and adaptability were keynotes of many Colombo designs, made for a more mobile society in which people would take their living environments with them. One of his most striking pieces is the Tube chair (1969). It comprises four foam-padded plastic cylinders that fit inside one another. The components, which are held together by metal clips, can be configured in a variety of seating shapes. Tube chairs generally sell for about $9,000 in good condition; Elda chairs for about $7,000. A small Colombo design such as the plastic Boby trolley — an office organizer on wheels, designed in 1970 — is priced in the range of $700. As Colombo intended, his designs are best suited to a modern decor. As you see on 1stDibs, if your tastes run to sleek, glossy Space Age looks, the work of Joe Colombo offers you a myriad of choices.