Marco ZANUSO

Marco Zanuso studied architecture at Politecnico di Milano, to 1939. After World War II, Zanuso practiced as a member of the Italian Modern movement. From 1945-86, was a professor of architecture, design, and town planning, at Politecnico di Milano. From 1949, was a professor at Instituto di Tecnologia della Facoltà di Archettura del Politecnico Di Milano, where he became director in 1970. Marco Zanuso set up his own design office in Milan in 1945 and was an editor of the architecture and design journals Domus and Casabella. In the early 1950’s, Zanuso began designing furniture in bent metal tubing, organized theoretical debates, and designed several Triennali di Milano. His chair design for the 1948 low-cost furniture competition sponsored by the New York Museum of Modern Art included a new joining mechanism for the fabric seat to be suspended from the tubular steel frame. Marco Zanuso designed the 1956-58 Olivetti factory and offices in São Paulo with honeycomb cells covered with a thin shell vault roof. His 1951 Lady armchair for Arlex featured the innovative application of foam-rubber upholstery. His 1962 Lambda chair, sheet-metal construction and his 1964 child’s stacking chair, the first use of polyethylene in a piece of furniture. In 1955 his sofa bed for Arflex incorporated an innovative mechanism for converting sofa to bed. 1958-77, Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper designed numerous works that subsequently became cult objects, including scales and timer for Terraillon in the early 1970’s. Their work was noted for elegant visual solutions. 1956-1958, Marco Zanuso was a member of the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) and member of Instituto Nazionale Urbanistica. In 1956 he was a founder of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) and Premio Compasso d’Oro. Zanuso was one of the guiding forces behind the formation of the Triennale di Milano and of Milan’s urban planning program. For Ettore Sottsass, he designed the 1987 Cleopatra and Antonio side tables for Memphis, Milan. His 1989 I Buoni Sentimenti table was produced by Galerie Néotù, Paris. Marco Zanuso's projects from the late 1980’s included the restoration of the Fossati theater and corso del Piccolo Teatro in Milan.