Nine architects from the city of Milan \u2013 one of the most ravaged cities, the most rebuilt cities, the poorest cities in architectural beauty, but also one of the cities readiest to welcome every form of expression \u2013 have revealed to us their experiences, their projects and their research in the trying sector of their activity regarding the home, which is perhaps the heart not only of architecture but of all that constitutes our everyday lives.<\/p>\n
Architecture is perhaps the only art form that continually ties together utility and beauty, aesthetics and practicality, technical norms and creative impulse, dreams and reality. Architects are two-sided beings; on the one hand they operate with the ruler and compass, and on the other they hold the pencil and brush; they often vaunt a vaguely bohemian vein, while on the other hand they are stern professionals; practical, shrewd and technically prepared.<\/p>\n
[…] For the interior furnishing sector […] the initial period was characterised by the abandonment of the antique<\/em> or the more deplorable imitation antique<\/em> style in favour of what was considered as being modern. Initially, a series of rational<\/em> furnishings were produced, as well as some absurd skeletal and bony articles thought to embody these new forms with their sharp, pointed angles, and their perpendicular lines […]. This period was useful in liberating us from superfluous baubles, complicated trappings, and useless baroquisms, leaving us face to face with the central issue of creating private houses with furnishings in keeping with the true nature of the home, furnishings that embody dynamic qualities capable of creating a new spatial plasticity.<\/p>\n Aside from this, the nine architects that we contacted \u2013 chosen because they represent the current and most forceful trends in their own sectors \u2013 confirm the validity of our premise. Following a semi-alphabetical order, we will now listen to the views of the architects Franco Albini<\/em> and Ignazio Gardella <\/em>regarding the home. The former (currently engaged in the study of the urban planning regulations of Genoa and Reggio Emilia) has very precise and methodical concepts regarding interior furnishing, as is evident in the marked linearity of many of his creations (e.g., the Dermatological Institute of Milan, which is one of his more exemplary expressions). Albini\u2019s view is that, although it is produced industrially, furniture should be made in varying degrees by serial production, thus permitting, when necessary, the use of single pieces of this furniture in the ambience created by the architect. It is possible today \u2013 affirms Albini \u2013 to conceive of a \u201cserial produced taste\u201d, a sort of style of serial production, and it is precisely this modulation that was impossible before, given the prevalence of craftmanship in the production of items of furniture. With a range of similar \u201cfurnishing\u201d modules, it will be possible to create varied and personalised composition within the same environment.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Gardella\u2019s<\/em> view of the home shows less inclination towards excessive industrialisation than that of Albini. We consider his furniture to be among the finest produced in Italy today; although designed specifically as typical furnishings, their serial production is scaled to the dimension of the craftsman. Indeed, he designed two types of tables with a telescopic mechanism and adjustable feet that allow the table-top to be raised or lowered; his beds, wardrobes, and bookcases all respond to his criteria of practicality through the crystallisation of a creative element into something functional. Nevertheless, Gardella also uses antique<\/em> or vintage<\/em> articles of furniture that were part of the domestic environment and constitute a reservoir of memories for a building\u2019s inhabitants in designing a harmonious home ambience. \u201cThe old piece of furniture\u201d, sustains Gardella, \u201cis like an old aunt, perhaps dressed in lace, who you can\u2019t get rid of\u201d, and so his distribution of old and new, fitted and mobile furniture in the home is rather like an orchestral composition, something that cannot be rigidly pre-established.<\/p>\n Prefabrication \u2013 either as a structural element of a building, or when applied to furniture \u2013 has its followers in the group of architects bpr<\/em> (Belgiojoso<\/em>, Peressutti<\/em> and Rogers<\/em>).<\/p>\n According to their principles, architecture must increasingly respond to the market presence of various prefabricated elements used in the construction of the domestic environment, independent of the type. They do not advocate a global policy for prefabricated buildings (which seems to prevail in the United Kingdom), which can lead to monotonous and lamentable standardisation. They believe in the prefabrication of single elements of the home to be used on a need-only basis and in different combinations \u2013 arranging them either together or separately \u2013 within the different domestic environs. A similar approach was adopted in the building in Via Borgonuovo constructed by bpr, which was entirely based on the recurrent motif of prefabricated windows<\/em>. Another example, but on a much smaller scale, is being applied in social housing projects where architects are using prefabricated door and window fixtures for entire service complexes.<\/p>\n This issue of prefabricated furniture \u2013 studied at length by architects \u2013 takes on a much vaster and more delicate perspective, especially when dealing with entire series<\/em> (tables, armchairs, chairs, wardrobes, etc.) constructed entirely from plastic materials<\/em>.<\/p>\n Just as ductile, and embodying the same creativity as analogous wooden furniture, these new pieces of furniture should be able to be mass produced with the contribution of Pirelli as a supplier of plastic primary materials. The only initial inconvenience is the elevated cost of the plastic moulds which, would obviously be alleviated with the production of consistent quantities. The advantages of these articles are that they are easily interchangeable, and worn or broken part are easily substituted, without sacrificing their elegance and novel design.<\/p>\n Moving from the single domestic environment to an entire urban area, we have a significant example in Milan with an entire planned urban neighbourhood constructed in an area with the enigmatic name of QT8<\/em>, the experimental Quartiere Triennale Ottava<\/em> [the Eighth Triennale Neighbourhood]. The architect Piero Bottoni<\/em> in his role as Special Commissioner of the Triennale was able to illustrate some of the problems encountered during the birth of QT8.<\/p>\n This experimental area was the only example of its kind in Europe on such a vast scale. It represents a true residential centre incorporated within the city centre, while maintaining its own autonomy from the rest of the city from a construction perspective (to such an extent that some specific articles were added to the Milan Urban Planning Regulations for the QT8 project).<\/p>\n The importance of QT8 for all the problems concerning private housing is very great: in this area, 9- and 4-storey apartment blocks will be designed and the construction of semi-detached and two-storey detached houses is planned. A special Youth Hostel<\/em> will also be built as a sort of family hotel for young guests from all nations. What is more surprising is that over 600 rooms are already being built in the area, which is tangible proof of the validity of the project. Again, pertaining to the QT8 project, a special international tender was launched for the design and construction of a shared house<\/em> and psychological and public hygiene studies etc. are ongoing to study the various factors (e.g. the colour of the environments) that Bottoni has researched over the past few years.<\/p>\n Regarding the creation of houses based entirely on prefabricated technology, we approached the architect Gabriele Mucchi<\/em>, who is constructing a prototype model building in QT8 in which the load-bearing walls are constructed from reinforced concrete pillars and beams prefabricated off-site and assembled to create a rigid and seamless skeleton. The roof and stair elements are also prefabricated.<\/p>\n Studying the furnishing of one of the apartments in these prefabricated constructions, Mucchi with great simplicity has created a concept of \u201cfurniture-dressing\u201d to meet the minimum requirements, while allowing the possibility of fine-tuning this basic set-up by matching different furniture items chosen from a range of possibilities, such as wardrobes, small dressers, and desks, which can be coordinated and used together in different combinations.<\/p>\n The architects Figini<\/em> and Pollini <\/em>have been working together for many years and have found solutions to the problem of housing for workers of the Olivetti plant in Ivrea with their novel proposal of apartment blocks. These are small, two-storey, south-facing houses built to take full advantage of natural light to illuminate the living areas while all service areas are located on the north side. Each unit consists of four identical apartments distributed over two floors, each with one room per floor. […]<\/p>\n Another problem resolved by the architect Giulio Minoletti<\/em> and his studio is the furnished apartment<\/em>: a type of house which is halfway between a family hotel and a furnished room and which allows the single person or small groups of military personnel to sojourn for variable periods without the cost and promiscuity of the hotel, and with the comfort and independence of a furnished independent room. The occupant is offered the choice between various types of crockery, bedlinen, and furniture in addition to the basic furnishings already included in the rooms. […] These housing units would have the additional advantage of being very economical: the cost of a single unit can be calculated in approximately 1 million lire for the land and construction, and a further 500,000 for the fittings and furnishing, thus facilitating rental at advantageous prices.<\/p>\n In addition to these more general problems, Minoletti is currently studying and will soon start to produce a very special type of armchair<\/em> ideally suited for special use in aeroplanes and electric trains; they are soon to be installed in the large Breda BZ308 aeroplanes and on the luxury electric trains which are being prepared for the Holy Year. These chairs are made from an aluminium housing which encases a layer of foam<\/em> rubber<\/em>, creating a homogeneous and practical seating solution.<\/p>\n More than his colleagues, the architect Gio Ponti<\/em> advocates greater freedom, both when applied to construction, but even more so for furnishing \u2013 freedom which is manifest in many different ways and styles and which do not impose on the client the rigid and sometimes excessive desire of the architect. This freedom is also manifest in his work, which is varied and fluid. Indeed, Ponti has been able to give various examples of his creativity both in the design of furniture and in construction (from his many works, we cite his building in Montecatini. With its sea-green Cipollino marble fa\u00e7ade and its characteristic aluminium window fittings, this is today one of the best examples of an \u201coffice building\u201d fully equipped with the latest modern technology.<\/p>\n […] For the architect Marco Zanuso<\/em>, the concepts that should be kept in mind when designing a private home must be based on the theme of \u201cliving space units\u201d (i.e., interconnections of penetrability and not barriers that divide the various living spaces). In this manner a sort of \u201carticulation of spaces and constructive volumes<\/em>\u201d can be created. Indeed, the architect\u2019s work is often based only on the study of the overall plan instead of each space or section. By studying the environment as something ductile and plastic, one can obtain a spatial rhythm that is interesting as well as having a truly functional aesthetic (e.g., this rhythmic function can be seen in the different levels of floorings or ceilings that Zanuso incorporates in his attic apartment, as well as in many other of his ingenious solutions). Passing on to the problem of home furnishing, Zanuso maintains that the greater part of the storage furniture (wardrobes) should be built into the structure, whereas other articles are considered true movable<\/em> furniture<\/em> that can be adapted to suit every need and which are distant from the traditional concept of stasis.<\/p>\n To create a piece of furniture that is truly modern, a deep understanding of the technical problems of the various materials is indispensable. There are many new interesting materials for the sector; in this period Zanuso is undertaking experimental studies on the special application of foam rubber<\/em> (assisted by the engineer Barassi), and using this new system he has designed an original and practical armchair that can be mass produced.<\/p>\n The problems associated with the house dealt with in these brief accounts focus on the varied and delicate problems of our existence. The human habitation is the seed; this is where the social cell is created through the family, from which all other social organisms, such as the school, hotel, military barracks, hospital, etc., are created; each of these non-typical homes maintains some constants which tend to reduce the individuality of the single inhabitant.<\/p>\n In other words, the inhabitant is the measure against which the habitation should be designed, and every time this measure is violated through different \u201cstates of aggregation\u201d there is a risk of suffocating the efficacy of the construction and of breaking that ethico-aesthetics that represents the final objective of architecture.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"composizione_articolo_gallery","composizione_articolo_gallery_immagini":[{"composizione_articolo_gallery_immagini_immagine":"https:\/\/assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/rivista-pirelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/04142117\/RP_1949_02_Nove-architetti-parlano-dellarredamento_003.webp"},{"composizione_articolo_gallery_immagini_immagine":"https:\/\/assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/rivista-pirelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/04142119\/RP_1949_02_Nove-architetti-parlano-dellarredamento_001.webp"},{"composizione_articolo_gallery_immagini_immagine":"https:\/\/assets.fondazionepirelli.org\/rivista-pirelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/04142123\/RP_1949_2_Nove-architetti-parlano-dellarredamento_002.webp"}]}],"custom_sticky":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3371,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rivistapirelli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}