(1916-2001)

Marco Zanuso was one of the protagonists of the architectural debate in postwar Italy. Born in Milan in 1916, he studied architecture there, and the same day he graduated, he embarked on a warship as a marine. The international conflict meant a four-year segue in his professional training, but it awakened as well his interest in high technology, production processes, and industrial design, all of which would constitute distinctive aspects of his prolific career. Back in civil life he was active in the reformulation of the discipline, first as editor of the magazine Casabella and later, from 1946 to 1947, as codirector of Domus, hand in hand with Ernesto Nathan Rogers. Among his built works we can mention the kindergarten in Gubbio, the Olivetti factory in Sao Paolo or the Nuevo Piccolo Theater of Milan, however, his principal accomplishments belong to the world of the design of everyday objects: the Lady easy chair, the Duna cutlery set or the chair for children are pieces he created for firms like Alessi, Kartell or Siemens, and all form part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.