Franco Albini joins Cassina's “Maestri”

With four pieces designed between 1949 and 1957, Franco Albini joins the “Cassina I Maestri” collection, making him the first Italian architect to be chosen for the reissuing of classic pieces by this famous brand.

Since 1965 Cassina has been singling out from its own collection of designs and products created by the protagonists of the Modern Movement those that it considers most significant to represent its history – as well as that of Italian design – and reissuing them in versions that remain faithful to the original. The collection began in 1965 with the remaking of furniture designed by Le Corbusier-Pierre Jeanneret-Charlotte Perriand and then continued with pieces by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Frank Lloyd Wright and Charlotte Perriand. The work of architect, town-planner and designer Franco Albini – with whom Cassina began an intense and profitable collaboration during the post-war years – has always been distinguished by an encounter between materials and methods that is an essential aspect of the company's identity, providing the basis for the remaking of four legendary pieces. Filippo Alison (curator of the I Maestri collection) directed the research into original documentation and study of existing prototypes and models towards production, introducing up-to-date technical solutions. The Luisa chair, the Cavalletto table, the Cicognino table and Infinito bookshelf now available are the result of work begun last year when the Fondazione Franco Albini was established (directed by his son, Marco) following the recognition by the Italian State of the work of Albini as part of the national heritage. Cassina meanwhile acquired the rights to reproduce these four pieces, chosen as icons of the rationalist rigour combined with lightness that is characteristic of the celebrated architect. Five lights designed by Franco Albini – in collaboration with Franca Helg and Antonio Piva – are the start of the Nemo collection, Casssina's lighting division, floor-standing, table-top and hanging lamps made in chrome-plated metal and blown glass. The showroom in via Durini has another surprise, the famous Veliero bookshelf, reconstructed in a version with a three-metre base, faithful to a series of original drawings that represent a variation of the model designed by Albini for his own house. Loredana Mascheroni