Kartell's ode to design

This is how the first plastic bucket, drainer, and tub came about. “All three of them won the Compasso d'Oro. They were made by great Italian designers, such as Gino Colombini.” Later came Gae Aulenti, Antonio Citterio, Ferruccio Laviani, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola, and Vico Magistretti, and then Philippe Starck, and Ron Arad. All of them were “allowed to make their own mark,” while respecting the Kartell identity.

Along the way, after the housewares, we move on to lighting with Castiglioni's lamp of 1959, and then furnishings, which “got their start in 1964, with the world’s first chair made entirely from plastic material.” Designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, it was a small kids’ chair. Interestingly, “it took 4 years to make it, to figure out how to build the mold.” The adults’ chair ‘Universale’ designed by Joe Colombo, came the following year. This type of experimentation is still ongoing, “chairs remain our core production” always with an eye to research. The “Composable, informal, modular, stackable piece of furniture, perhaps the most dated object that is still in production today” is a must-see. Who doesn’t own one? “It's been our longest bestselling product” for over 50 years, now modernized with recycled and biomaterial in pastel colors, “joining the shiny and colorful original ABS version, which is still in our catalogue.”

When Claudio Luti took over the company in 1988, he made his debut with the first chair designed by Starck, the Dr. Globe, a plastic chair that doesn't look like a plastic chair. Polypropylene loaded with talc and mass-colored is used. It is the pioneer of a family of contemporary furniture. Another Kartell icon from those years is Ron Arad's bookworm bookcase. “That bookcase was inspired by one of his iron artworks,” Lorenza Luti reveals. “My father had seen it in London, liked it very much, and figured out how to mass produce it with a plastic material. This object still enjoys a huge success.”

There is a backstory to every project, including Starck's colorful dwarf. It was supposed to be a special ad hoc project as a vase holder or stool for a hotel, but it was so popular that it was added to the collection and became one of Kartell’s most recognizable icons, of which there are many. We should mention the Louis Ghost chair, turning twenty this year, but the starting point of transparent furniture was La Marie, also designed by Starck. “They are made from the polycarbonate 2.0 patented by our company; it is very resistant, so much so that it was used to make shields for the American police, and it's green, as about 70% of it comes from cellulose and paper waste. “We have the exclusive right to this material in the furniture sector, which we have applied to all polycarbonate products.”

Can we speak of sustainability in this museum where we are surrounded by plastic? “Yes, of course” and stretching back in time as well. “The museum displays the first experiment in recycled plastic, a wastebasket created in the late eighties. But no one wanted it, because it wasn't beautiful then, and it smelled awful,” Lorenza admits laughing. “Starting from there, we began to research materials, and in the last ten years, we have converted nearly all our products into recycled material. We also have a chair made with coffee capsules that is in production this year, in partnership with Illy. We use their plastic scraps and convert 100% of them into a chair. Last year we had the Citterio chair prototype, which is now on the market. In addition, we will be exhibiting the new armchair by Starck at the next Milan Furniture Fair, named Eleganza. This is an innovative object featuring terracotta red legs and upholstered with Missoni fabrics.”

The museum displays the first experiment in recycled plastic, a wastebasket created in the late eighties. But no one wanted it, because it wasn't beautiful then

Furthermore, in view of the most important design event, the museum is setting up “the temporary exhibition ‘Kartell Luce Viva.’ Curator Elisa Storace managed to delve into the theme of lighting design by collecting 25 lamps from the present and the past, bringing out excitement and function. It will be divided into five sections, the light that reveals, the light that illuminates, the light that illuminates and becomes the protagonist, the light that tells a story by decorating a room, and the living light, and it will feature Geen-a, inspired by Laviani’s mother Gina, who was an avid reader. It is our first reading lamp.”