The furniture is nearly architecture, invading space like segments of a wider urban landscape. Objects that can be entered, practicable spaces, micro-environments. And like architecture, this furniture is often cold and hard on the outside but lacquered and velvety within.
Andrea Branzi
Andrea Branzi b. 1938
Born in Florence in 1938, Andre Branzi received his first formal training at the Florence School of Architecture. Soon after his graduation, Branzi, along with Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, and Massimo Morozzi, founded the Archizoom Associati, an association firmly against the tenants of modernism. The group instead created plans for imaginative and fictional cities like “No-Stop City” which eliminated a centralized city plan. The Archizoom movement sought to incorporate elements of pop art into their designs, and the resulting works were imbued with a strong sense of irony and fun.
Following the disbanding of Archizoom Associati in 1974, Branzi went on to join Studio Alchimia which aimed to add sensuality to the emotionless functional forms often mass-produced. In the 1980s, Branzi collaborated with the Memphis Group, which shared a love of whimsy as well as the rejection of modernism with the earlier Archizoom Associati. While Branzi was working for Memphis, he co-founded Domus Academy, which was the first program dedicated to teaching post-graduates design studies.
To this day, Branzi lives and works in Milan. He was a professor at the School of Interior Design until 2009 and his work has been featured prominently in both the Venice Biennale and Milan Triennale. Branzi’s designs can be found in several museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
