“I don’t think of myself as an artist nor as a technician, but as an epistemologiest… A designer is the creator of the environment of the future” – Joe Colombo

The Milanese organic designer Joe Colombo who passed away the same year I was born, firmly believed in creating an integral habitat where the aesthetics of a home developed out of the way it was meant to be used as environment for living.

He originally started his career as a painter and sculptor, and you can see evidence of this on the lurid colors, as well as the technological and functional innovation he used in his furniture design.

These designs are in great demand at auctions houses throughout the world. In the 1960s Joe Colombo created the 4801 chair – an authentic symbol of the design world at that time. That famous chair, which has since been licensed to Kartell was produced entirely of wood. Nowadays, technology enables the manufacture to produce them in PMMA, a process which emphasises their rounded, smooth shapes.

 

The 4801 chairs by Joe Colombo now produced by Kartell