Studio Alchimia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guerriero: “Alchimia is a counter course in history, I founded it and I sunk it. Both."
Proust armchair , Alessandro Mendini for Studio Alchimia, 1978

Studio Alchimia was founded in 1976 in Milan by the architect Alessandro Guerriero and his sister Adriana and emerged from the radical movement of the 1960s.

Initially planned as a gallery and laboratory for experimental designs freed from the limitations of the industrial design process, Studio Alchimia developed into an influential design studio. Together with Alessandro Mendini , Alessandro Guerriero's team developed projects from 1978 to 1981, with which they combined the most diverse contributions from designers such as Ettore Sottsass , Michele De Lucchi , Andrea Branzi , Paola Navone and Robert and Trix Haussmann . Alchimia saw itself as a post-radical discussion forum , but distanced itself from political statements. The name was chosen based on the medieval alchemists who tried to turn base metals into gold or silver. For this reason, Alchimia deliberately used inexpensive materials such as pressed board, laminates and plywood. The aim of the design studio was to counter the emotionless, functionalist mass production with individual, sensually appealing unique pieces. It made no difference whether the objects were appropriately designed.

In the collections Bau.Haus 1 and Bau.Haus 2, ironically titled in allusion to the Bauhaus , from 1978 and 1979, Alchimia provoked with brightly colored plastic-coated Bauhaus and period furniture . In the 1980s, the re-design or banal design of Mendinis was the focus of Alchemy. He re-designed classic furniture, e.g. B. Marcel Breuer's chair Wassily and provided it with decorative ornaments and decorations. He also decorated banal consumer goods, such as department store lamps or irons with colorful flags, spikes and arrows, or redesigned their surfaces in terms of color and haptic. Existing old furniture was also changed "alchemically" and refined with a new surface or cover. Examples include Mendini sofa Kandissi or armchair Proust .

At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Alchimia was considered to be the most important international design group. a. represented in the Forum Design 1980 in Linz .

In 1981 Ettore Sottsass left the group and founded the less consumer-critical group Memphis .

On the Alchimia Milano website there is a list of all people who have worked at Alchimia or who have worked with Alchimia.

literature

  • Charlotte Fiell, Peter Fiell: Design of the 20th Century , Cologne: Taschen, 2000, ISBN 3-8228-0813-X , p. 32.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Studio Alchimia in the International Design Lexicon
  2. ↑ Design dictionary: Radical Design
  3. ↑ cf. Thomas Hauffe: Design Schnellkurs, Cologne: Dumont, 2000, p. 152.
  4. ↑ cf. Catharina Berents: A Brief History of Design. From Gottfried Semper to Philippe Starck, Munich: CH Beck, 2011, p. 170.
  5. ↑ cf. Design today. Standards: Shaping between Industry and Art, ed. Volker Fischer, Munich: Prestel, 1988, p. 73.
  6. ↑ cf. Thomas Hauffe: Design Schnellkurs, Cologne: Dumont, 2000, p. 153.
  7. ↑ Alchimia Milano / collaborazioni