EnglishIconic lines, pioneering movements, and timeless pieces… This section explores the legacies of design that continue to inspire today’s creators. A bridge between past and present, craftsmanship and vision.
What is Postmodernism? Postmodernism emerged as an intellectual and cultural movement during the 1960s and 1970s, positioning itself as a reaction against modernity and its certainties. Its influence spans philosophy, art, architecture, literature, and the social sciences. Several defining features characterize postmodernism. First, a pronounced relativism: there isn’t one singular truth, but rather multiple truths…
Between the oil shocks of the 1970s and the technological euphoria of the late 1980s, an aesthetic revolution transformed architecture and design: the High-Tech movement elevated technology into a creative manifesto. Far from concealing pipes, wiring, or metal structures behind decorative cladding, this radical avant-garde proudly exposed them, transforming infrastructure into ornament and technical performance…
When Milan Reinvents Daily Life Through Industrial Beauty Milan, 1954. In the workshops of Via Durini, Gio Ponti contemplates a Chiavari peasant chair that is one hundred and fifty years old. Around him, Italy is rising from its ashes with a vigor that astonishes all of Europe. That afternoon, Ponti decides to reinvent this anonymous…
Traditional Scandinavian design embodies much more than just a decorative style: it reveals a philosophy of life deeply rooted in Nordic culture. Born of the encounter between rigorous climatic constraints, ancestral craft heritage and social-democratic ideals, this aesthetic movement has conquered the world with its elegant simplicity, exemplary functionality and warm humanism. From Sweden to…
The Bauhaus was born in 1919 in a Germany devastated by World War I. Founded by architect Walter Gropius, this revolutionary school aimed to reconcile art and industry to rebuild a modern and democratic world. Despite its forced closure by the Nazis in 1933, the Bauhaus left an indelible mark on the history of design,…
Did you know that the color mauve was considered revolutionary in 1856? That a simple Colgate toothpaste tube forever changed our relationship to hygiene? That Steve Jobs drew inspiration from a calligraphy course to create computer typography? Why are Louis XIV furniture pieces so gilded? Why are our smartphones all rectangular? Design is never innocent….
Ulm, Germany, 1953. On a hill overlooking the city, Max Bill inaugurates the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG Ulm), a design school that aims to reconnect with the legacy of the Bauhaus closed by the Nazis in 1933. But Ulm will not be a simple resurrection: it will radicalize the rationalist approach, develop a scientific methodology…
196O: a new (design) Revolution is coming… The organic design movement experienced a significant boom in the late 1950s, building upon the pioneering work of figures like Eero Saarinen. The 1960s marked a radical turning point in contemporary design history. Amidst social upheavals and the excitement of technological progress, design evolved from functionalism to emotional,…
Moscow, 1917. While Parisian Art Deco celebrated the luxury of the interwar period and Dutch De Stijl pursued pure abstraction, the October Revolution shook Russia and gave birth to one of the most radical artistic movements of the 20th century. Russian Constructivism emerged from revolutionary chaos, carried by an unshakeable conviction: art must no longer…
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1932. While the Great Depression paralyzes America and Streamline Moderne begins transforming the American industrial landscape, Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen founds an institution that will revolutionize American design: the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Far from the New York or California metropolises, in the affluent suburbs of Detroit, this school invents a unique…
Amsterdam, 1917. While Art Deco triumphed in Paris with its geometric ornaments and refined luxury, a group of Dutch artists and architects chose a radically opposite path. In a Europe torn apart by World War I, they founded a magazine that would give its name to one of the most radical movements of the 20th…
New York, 1933. The “Century of Progress” World’s Fair in Chicago celebrated American technological progress at the heart of the Great Depression. While Europe sank into political tensions and Russian Constructivism faded under Stalin, America invented a radically new visual language: Streamline Moderne. This style, which would transform everything – from toasters to locomotives, from…
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