NAPOLEONE FERRARI

The Furniture of Carlo Mollino The only monograph on the furniture and interior design of Carlo Mollino.Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari The only monograph on the furniture and interior design of Carlo Mollino, one of the most original Italian architects of the 20th century Features an amazing range of work, from his sculptural pieces of furniture to his famously elaborate interiors Extensively illustrated with over 400 sketches, drawings and archival photographs, many never published before Written by Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari, curators of Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, and experts in Mollino's work An indispensable tool for collectors of Mollino's furniture.Carlo Mollino (1905-73), the son of a prominent engineer of the city of Turin, graduated with honours from Turin's Royal School of Architecture. He joined his father's firm in 1931, only to pursue an independent and highly original career in design and architecture seven years later. From the start, both his interests and personality set him apart from his contemporaries. Influenced by the Second Futurism and surrealist avant-gardes, he was active in an impressive number of fields, including aeronautics, automobile design, art, photography, set design, town planning, furniture, interior decoration and architecture. Highlights from his architectural output include the headquarters of the Società Ippica Torinese (1935-9), the Faculty of Architecture where he lectured from 1952 to 1970, and the Teatro Regio Torinese (1966), all in Turin. Mollino was able to bring together various forms of expression through his extensive artistic research. His furniture was based on organic shapes, such as tree branches, animal horns and the human body, the female profile figuring prominently in his design work. These pieces evolved from the appreciation of the shapes of Art Nouveau and the architect Antoni Gaudí, and were far more expressive and sculptural than the ones being produced in Milan at the same time. Most of his furniture designs were site-specific one-offs for specifically commissioned interiors and were manufactured by the Apelli & Varesio joinery in Turin. This has meant that these pieces are very