The designer of speed, of “biodynamics”, founder of “biodesign”, and much more. Luigi Colani, passed away on September 16th, aged 91, is a design legend, who worked in all possible design fields.
Born in Germany in 1928 (as Lutz Colani), he worked all over the world. In the early Fifties, in California, he designed new materials for the aeronautical industry. Shortly afterwards, in France, he started working for the automotive industry, where he left a great legacy.
By the 1960s, he had expanded into the furniture industry, working with several leading brands in Germany and around the world. Colani left a significant legacy also in furniture design, with many pieces still in production.
Luigi Colani and organic furniture
In 1968 and 1969, as an in-house designer at Kusch + Co., he designed the Colani collection of padded lounge chairs characterized by organic shapes. The collection, updated in 2005, is still in production.
During those years he also designed the experimental kitchen “Experiment 70”, for Poggenpohl, a complete range of furnishings illustrating year 2000, as seen in the Space Age.
In the Seventies, Colani approached the use of plastic and rounded shapes in design of furniture products, some made of fiberglass, others of polyethylene. His passion for research into materials started in the Fifties in California, while working in the aeronautical industry.
Still from 1971, it’s the tea set “Drop”, designed for Rosenthal Studio Linie, also futuristic/bolidist in shape.
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