Franco Albini Four Doors Rosewood MB15 Credenza, for Poggi, circa 1960

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Franco Albini Four Doors Rosewood MB15 Credenza, for Poggi, circa 1960

About the Item

Iconic Italian design piece. Four doors rosewood credenza by Italian Architect Franco Albini (Robbiate, 1905 – Milan 1977), Poggi production, circa 1960. Model n MB15. Conservative restoration. From Franco Albini Foundation web site: " Franco Albini is born in 1905 in Robbiate (Lecco). In 1916 he moves to Milan where he gets his degree in Architecture at the Politecnico (1929) and begins working in the firm Ponti and Lancia. In 1931 he opens his own private practice with Camus and Palanti working on council housing: neighbourhoods “Fabio Filzi” (1936-38), “Gabriele D’Annunzio” (1938-40) and “Ettore Ponti” (1939). In the years before and during the war he continues his research on urban projects and housing solutions: from “Milano Verde” to Villa Pestarini (1938). Albini begins working on outfitting for exhibitions for the V Triennale in 1933 with the House with a steel frame created with Pagano and others. At the following Triennale in 1936 he designs the Room for a man and, with Romano, the Exhibition of antique Italian jewelry, archetype of new exposition solutions. In 1945 he is the president of the Movement of Studies for Architecture and is director, with Palanti, of “Costruzioni Casabella”. He begins collaborating with Franca Helg in 1952. In those years the studio creates important projects among which the Ina office building in Parma (1950-54) and the shopping center La Rinascente in Rome (1957-61). In Genova they work on projects of city planning, buildings and museums: Palazzo Bianco (1949-51) and Palazzo Rosso (1952-62) and the creation of the Museo del Tesoro di San Lorenzo (1952-56). In the sixties together with the graphic designer Noorda they plan the Metropolitana Milanese (subway stations). The studio Albini-Helg collaborates first with Antonio Piva and then with MarCo Albini. Franco Albini for almost thirty years is also University professor in Venice, Turin and Milan. He dies in 1977 in Milan".

Creator:
Franco Albini (Designer),Poggi (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 30.32 in (77 cm)Width: 96.07 in (244 cm)Depth: 18.51 in (47 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Rosewood
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
1960s
Condition:
Conservative restoration.
Seller Location:
IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2072312065333

Shop All Franco Albini

Franco Albini

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.

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