Collection: Franco Albini

Franco Albini (Robbiate 1905-Milan 1977) was an undisputed master of 20th century Italian architecture. His work also ranged to product design, town planning, exhibition design and teaching. After graduating from the then Regio Politecnico di Milano in 1929, he worked in the office of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia. These were years in which the rationalist wave swept through Milan, with the formation of such collectives as Gruppo 7 and MIAR (Movimento Italiano Architettura Razionale), opposed by academics and the so-called Novecento architects. Franco Albini showed no interest in the new movement until he met Edoardo Persico, then director of Casabella. The critic had seen the design of some furnishings by the young architect and defined them as "Novecentisti". This episode marked the beginning of the trajectory that led Albini to become one of the leading exponents of Italian rationalism by joining the so-called Milanese School, alongside Edoardo Persico, Giuseppe Pagano, Figini and Pollini, BBPR, Piero Bottoni and Ignazio Gardella.

In 1931, he opened an office with Giancarlo Palanti. They worked on social housing projects for the new Milan suburbs. From 1933 on, he took part in several temporary exhibition projects with the Rationalist group at the recently inaugurated Palazzo della Triennale. The exhibitions, whose projects were presented in a 1:1 scale, had rationalist architecture as their theme. For the young architect, they represented a laboratory in which he could freely experiment with his ideas. Albini's approach to design emerged from these experiences - rigorous and methodical, tending to mediate between artistic flair and professional logic, whether erecting buildings or designing objects. His characteristic grids, nodes, metal frames, glass walls, suspended objects, and minimalist spaces imbued with air, light and suggestive transparencies come to life in his designs. In Stanza per Uomo (1936) created for the Dassi company, Albini concentrated a sequence of functional and extraordinarily modern furnishing solutions into just 27 square metres. In the 1940s, he designed furniture for his flats in Via Cimarosa and Via De Togni. They included the prototype for the Fiorenza armchair, produced by Arflex in 1952 and Poggi in 1967; the prototype for the Crystal Radio and the Veliero bookcase, now included in the I Maestri di Cassina collection; the Mitragliera lamp, a surreal wood rocking-chair, also proposed by Cassina with the name Canapo.

Albini became one of the founders of the Movimento Studi Architettura after a pause due to the war. In 1952, he partnered with the architect Franca Helg, producing some of his most representative architectural works. They included Villa Olivetti in Ivrea (1956); the Rinascente department store in Rome (1957-1971); the Ina offices in Parma (1950-1954); the Line 1 stations for the Milan underground (1962-1964); and fittings for four museums in Genoa. At the same time, his ingenuity gave rise to such iconic objects as the Luisa armchair by Poggi (1955), which won the Compasso d'Oro ADI award. Pieces reissued by Cassina are included in the I Maestri collection: the Cicognino coffee table (1953), the TL3 table (1953) and the 835 Infinito bookcase (1956). He designed a collection of glass and metal lamps for the Nemo lighting company in collaboration with Franca Helg, Marco Albini and Antonio Piva. For Olivari, he designed the Agata handle collection. Franco Albini died in Milan in 1977.