Joe Colombo

Italy

Person

Designer

Born 30 July 1930 Milan, Italy Died 30 July 1971 Milan, Italy Joe Colombo studied architecture at the Politecnico and painting at the Brera Academy in Milan from 1949 to 1955. During the 1950s, he devoted himself to informal painting and became a member of the Nuclear Art movement and MAC (Movimento Arte Concreta). In 1954, he designed an installation of television sets and a ceramics display for the X Triennale di Milano. He completed his first and only building in Milan in 1956. After founding his own studio in 1963, he created a series of influential designs. In 1964, he received the IN/ARCH Prize and several awards at the XIII Triennale di Milano, including a gold medal for the Acrilica lamp. Further honours followed for the Spider lamp (Compasso d’Oro, 1967) and the Coupé lamp (Design International Award, 1968). For Domusricerca, he designed exhibition architecture and displays for the Eurodomus exhibitions in 1966, 1968 and 1970. Among his most important projects were the Visiona 1 exhibition for Bayer (1969) at the Cologne Furniture Fair, the Candyzionatore air conditioner (Compasso d’Oro, 1970), the Universale chair and the Boby trolley (1971). He died 1971 with only 41 of a heart attack. In 1972, his Total Furnishing Unit was presented posthumously in the exhibition 'Italy: New Domestic Landscape' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.