- Product:
- Personal container
- Manufacturer:
- Christie`s
- Architonic ID:
- 4102534
- Launched:
- 1964
- Country:
- United Kingdom
- Category:
- Furnishings
- Address
- Telephone
- Website
Key facts
Product description
Designed 1964, prototype executed by Bernini, solid walnut case, stainless and polished steel, plastic, brass, felt; the rectangular case with continuous stainless steel handle, opening to reveal tri-panel interior, fitted with drawers and open compartments, pipe rack, record storage shelves, magazine rack, retractable record turntable, adjustable lamp, and Sintonia Movar Trader radio.
71in. (180cm.) height; 311⁄2in. (80cm.) width; 151⁄2in. (39.5cm.) depth - when closed
Joe Colombo has evolved as one of the most significant designers of the 1960s. Prior to his untimely death at the age of 41 in 1971, Colombo had produced a spectacular portfolio of domestic and industrial products. Colombo's persistent preoccupation was the reduction of modern living to self-contained and portable modules. Designs such as the 'Combi-Centre' (1963) and the 'Mini-Kitchen' (1963) intended to eliminate the clutter and detritus of the domestic interior. By the end of the decade, Colombo's experiments in reduction had yielded the 'Total Furnishing Unit' of 1971, a complete and compact portable home designed for exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The 'Personal' unit offered is part of an envisaged system of an optimum four containers. The series comprised the 'For Man' and the 'For Woman' containers, to accomodate clothing, the 'Study' container, fitted with a bookcase and a writing surface, and the 'Personal' container. Each was equipped with a lighting system, and could be connected together, or closed like a trunk for ease of transport and despatch. On opening, they turn into hinged screens that can be used to create separate and private zones within a larger area.
Colombo's utopian and pragmatic approach to a mobile lifestyle received critical attention, however these compressed environments were not to develop beyond the prototype stage. Colombo's vision predates by almost a decade a comparable concept exhibited by Ettore Sottsass at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1972.
Lit.: Ignazia Favata, Joe Colombo and Italian Design of the Sixties, Milan, 1988, p.69 (sketch of the 'Personal' container), pp.68-69 (illustrations of the 'Man' and the 'Woman' containers);
Vittorio Fagone (ed.), I Colombo, Milan, 1995, pp.126, 206-213 (related self-contained storage systems illustrated)
71in. (180cm.) height; 311⁄2in. (80cm.) width; 151⁄2in. (39.5cm.) depth - when closed
Joe Colombo has evolved as one of the most significant designers of the 1960s. Prior to his untimely death at the age of 41 in 1971, Colombo had produced a spectacular portfolio of domestic and industrial products. Colombo's persistent preoccupation was the reduction of modern living to self-contained and portable modules. Designs such as the 'Combi-Centre' (1963) and the 'Mini-Kitchen' (1963) intended to eliminate the clutter and detritus of the domestic interior. By the end of the decade, Colombo's experiments in reduction had yielded the 'Total Furnishing Unit' of 1971, a complete and compact portable home designed for exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The 'Personal' unit offered is part of an envisaged system of an optimum four containers. The series comprised the 'For Man' and the 'For Woman' containers, to accomodate clothing, the 'Study' container, fitted with a bookcase and a writing surface, and the 'Personal' container. Each was equipped with a lighting system, and could be connected together, or closed like a trunk for ease of transport and despatch. On opening, they turn into hinged screens that can be used to create separate and private zones within a larger area.
Colombo's utopian and pragmatic approach to a mobile lifestyle received critical attention, however these compressed environments were not to develop beyond the prototype stage. Colombo's vision predates by almost a decade a comparable concept exhibited by Ettore Sottsass at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1972.
Lit.: Ignazia Favata, Joe Colombo and Italian Design of the Sixties, Milan, 1988, p.69 (sketch of the 'Personal' container), pp.68-69 (illustrations of the 'Man' and the 'Woman' containers);
Vittorio Fagone (ed.), I Colombo, Milan, 1995, pp.126, 206-213 (related self-contained storage systems illustrated)