Farewell to Aldo Spinelli, the Poliform co-founder who helped take Italian design to the world

With the passing of Aldo Spinelli, Italian design loses one of the figures who helped shape its international identity in the second half of the twentieth century. Together with his cousins Alberto Spinelli and Giovanni Anzani, the co-founder of Poliform steered a company rooted in the manufacturing tradition of Brianza into one of the world’s leading contemporary furniture brands, one of the defining voices in the distinctly Italian approach to reshaping the language of design through the culture of living. The company’s history unfolds alongside that pivotal chapter in design history. Poliform was founded in Inverigo, near Como, in 1970, when the three partners built on the legacy of a family-run woodworking business established in 1942. It was a defining moment for Italian design, as industrial production, formal experimentation and an increasingly close dialogue with architecture were redefining the role of furniture. Even the company's name reflected this outlook, pointing towards an open, modular approach to design.
The expansion of production, the broadening of its design culture and the development of an international network naturally became the next chapters of the story. Some of the most influential names in contemporary design – many of whom would become long-term collaborators – joined the company over the years, including Jean-Marie Massaud, Paola Navone, Marcel Wanders and Daniel Libeskind.

Poliform established a global presence, becoming a landmark participant at Design Weeks, while steadily building an ecosystem around its original manufacturing base, driven by production as well as by research and creative development. One expression of this evolution was the opening of Poliform Lab in the 2010s, designed by Carlo Colombo.
In 2018, Spinelli and his fellow founders received the Compasso d'Oro Career Award, recognising Poliform as one of the most significant success stories in Italy's design industry. The honour also acknowledged Spinelli's role as one of the entrepreneurs who helped forge a distinctive and enduring identity for Italian design, one rooted in the domestic environment and sustained through more than five decades of transformation.

Featured image: Courtesy of Poliform