Paola Navone is an Italian architect and designer. She was born 1950 [1] in Turin, Italy.
She grew up in Turin and went on to study at the Polytechnic University in the city and graduated in 1973. While she was there she studied architecture and after moved to Milan to start her life as a designer. [2]
Paola Navone has worked in many creative industries as an architect, product designer, business consultant, interior designer, shop and restaurant designer, exhibition and event organizer, lecturer and teacher. She is a self-proclaimed work addict with many skills and passions. Her clients have included Driade, Swarovski, Abet Laminati, Casamilano, Alessi, Knoll International, Cappellini, Roche Bobois, Armani Casa, Martinelli Luce, [3] and Habitat. From 1970-1980, she made her way up by working alongside Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass Jr, and Andrew Branzi in a group called Alchimia. [4]
Navone has always had a disregard for convention, which she developed during her time with the 'antidesign' rebels led by Mendini and Sottsass. 'It was crazy, what we did. Working like mad to produce the utterly useless,' she says. 'But it was a catalyst. It produced a lot of energy and gradually, much later, our inventive thinking has been absorbed by industry.' [5]
In 1983, she won the prestigious Osaka International Design Award for Abet Laminati. She was supposed to enter only one design but instead she entered 50 because she could not pick just one. [2] In her later works, she has collaborated with Crate & Barrel and Anthropologie. [6]
In 2023 she organised an exhibition titled Take It Or Leave It at the annual Milan Furniture Fair. The unusual show presents hundreds of objects and curiosities selected by the designer to be distributed to the holders of a winning ticket thus transforming each object through "a radical form of upcycling and reuse." [7]
Alessi is a housewares and kitchen utensil company in Italy, manufacturing and marketing everyday items authored by a wide range of designers, architects, and industrial designers — including Achille Castiglioni, Richard Sapper, Marco Zanuso, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass, Wiel Arets, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Hani Rashid, Tom Kovac, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Jean Nouvel, UN Studio, Michael Graves, and Philippe Starck. The Alessi company in the UK is worth around £2.4 million.
Ettore Sottsass was a 20th-century Italian architect, noted for also designing furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office wares, as well as numerous buildings and interiors — often defined by bold colours.
The Compasso d'Oro is an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954. Initially sponsored by the La Rinascente, a Milanese department store, the award has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) since 1964. The Compasso d'Oro is the first, and among the most recognized and respected design awards. It aims to acknowledge and promote quality in its field in Italy and internationally, and has been called both the "Nobel" and the "Oscar" of design.
Alessandro Mendini was an Italian designer and architect. He played an important part in the development of Italian, Postmodern, and Radical design. He also worked, aside from his artistic career, for Casabella, Modo and Domus magazines.
Domus is an architecture and design magazine founded in 1928 by architect Gio Ponti and Barnabite father Giovanni Semeria. Published by Editoriale Domus, the magazine is issued 11 times a year on a monthly basis and has its headquarters in Rozzano, Milan.
In Italian design, the Radical period took place in the late 1960s, with a shift in style among the avant-garde. Probably the most notable result of this avant-garde period is the installation called "Superarchitettura", made in Pistoia in 1966. Another important exhibition dedicated to radical design in Italy was held at MoMA in 1972.
Paolo Fossati was an Italian author, professor and art historian.
David Shaw Nicholls is a Scottish architect and designer based in New York City, Italy and Glasgow. He became internationally known by his minimalist ASFLEXI settee, conceived while in school.
Paolo Venini emerged as one of the leading figures in the production of Murano glass and an important contributor to twentieth century Italian design. He is known for having founded the eponymous Venini & C. glassworks.
Luigi "Gino" Levi-Montalcini was an Italian architect and designer.
The Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. It was active from 1980 to 1987. The group designed postmodern furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, ceramics, glass and metal objects.
Aldo Cibic is an Italian designer.
Margherita "Mara" Servetto, is an Italian architect and designer. She is the co-founder of Migliore + Servetto Architects.
Atelier Mendini is a design and architecture studio based in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1989 by two architect brothers Alessandro and Francesco Mendini. The Atelier consists of various design professionals: including architects, graphic designers, and industrial designers. It also has a special department dedicated to project research and experimentation in materials.
Barbara Radice is an Italian design critic, writer, and editor.
Studio Alchimia was a post-radical avant-garde group founded in Milan in 1976 by Alessandro Guerriero and his sister Adriana with the stated mission of "materializing a non-existent thing into being."
Bethan Laura Wood she is an internationally-recognised English designer of jewellery, furniture, decorative objects, lighting and installations. She has designed for such media as glass, laminates and ceramics. Work produced by her studio, WOOD London, is characterised by colour, geometry and visual metaphor, pattern and marquetry. She has been described as "[re-contextualizing] ... elements from everyday objects, often focusing on the pattern and coloration of objects as indicators of their origins, production, and past usage."
UFO was a design and architectural group founded in Florence, Italy, active between 1967 - 1978. A major part of the Radical architecture and design movement of the late 1960s, they studied under Umberto Eco at the University of Florence. Fellow alumni included the founders of Superstudio and Archizoom Associati.
Martine Bedin is a French architect and designer. She was a member of the Memphis Group.
The Olivetti Valentine is a portable, manual typewriter manufactured and marketed by the Italian company, Olivetti, that combined the company's Lettera 32 internal typewriter mechanicals with signature red, glossy plastic bodywork and matching plastic case. Designed in 1968 by Olivetti's Austrian-born consultant, Ettore Sottsass, assisted by Perry A. King and Albert Leclerc – it was introduced in 1969 and was one of the earliest and most iconic plastic-bodied typewriters.