Arflex is an Italian company that makes and sells contemporary furniture.
Contents |
In 1947 a group of researchers and entrepreneurs who after the war had begun to work on two new upholstering materials – foam rubber and elastic tape made by Pirelli – presented the technical specifications of the new products to Marco Zanuso who at once saw the huge potential of the new materials in interior furnishings and initiated an experimental programme of operations that went on until 1950. There are moments in the life and history of any manufacturing company that have special significance and are a source of universally recognized merit. Those first memorable moments in the history of Arflex coincide with the company’s creation in 1950, in modest premises in Milan’s Corso di Porta Vittoria. It was there that the first manufacturing and sales team was formed but the arflex company was only presented to the public for the first time in 1951, at the IX Triennale in Milan.
This early contact with a wider audience in the context of an avant-garde artistic event is intensely significant. The company’s over-riding interest in experimentation, although by no means divorced from commercial considerations, testifies to its desire to create products with a high technological and aesthetic content, based on a foundation of research in depth. The gold medal awarded at the IX Triennale to Marco Zanuso’s Lady armchair was above all recognition of this side of arflex’s manufacturing philosophy. So the company’s early initiatives are indicative of a stance we may safely term innovative, or perhaps even avant-garde. On the one hand we have a methodologically exemplary contribution from one of the leading figures in Italian architecture, and on the other the commitment of a manufacturer unburdened by the ingrained habits of craft-scale production. New materials.
Between 1951 and 1954 arflex produced various models of car seat designed by Carlo Barassi. These could be fitted into the vehicle instead of standard production seats and offered outstandig comfort,thanks to the use of foam rubber and elastic tape. The covers could be removed and the seatbacks were adjustable. Arflex strove to make its contribution to the comfort of those Italians who were beginning to travel just after the war. The most successful of those car seats were the "MilleMIglia" and the "Sedile Lettino", a seat that could be turned into a makeshift bed. Both were designed for the Fiat Topolino.
Marco Zanuso became a symbol of the developing design culture in post-war Italy, a generation of designers whose social commitment was coloured by the ideological heritage of the Modern Movement. And so the collection of Arflex products is first and foremost an overview of the fruitful collaboration of manufacturer and designer.Marco Zanuso (as a designer) and arflex (as a manufacturer) started out together, the only such case in the history of furnishings in Italy.
The number of designers who contributed to the arflex range increased steadily: Franco Albini, De Carlo, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Roger, Carboni, Pulitzer, Menghi, Joe Colombo, Casati, Spadolini, Tito Agnoli, Marenco, Cini Boeri, Carlo Colombo, Cristof Pilelt, Vincent Van Duysen, Michele De Lucchi, Ettore Sottsass, Marco Piva, and many others.