Prototype Cube for the

In the late 1960s, in the same fashion as rock bands that splintered and formed "supergroups," the world of Italian pop design was dominated by radical collectives of all-star designers, the most famous of which were Archizoom and Superstudio. Each group used furniture as a means of expressing their architectural, utopian and political manifestos. Their brilliance and sensationalism foreshadowed the achievements of Studio Alchimia in the 1970s. The Florentine group Superstudio (1966-1982) and its devotion to a global redevelopment using "Architectural Histograms" is a vision of such poetry and complexity that an entire catalogue would be needed to do it justice. The group used a stunning series of collages (Fig. 1) to illustrate their principles. These works of art are now in the permanent collections of several museums, including MoMA and the Pompidou. In 1969, Superstudio began work on translating this vision into furniture, and it is believed that the cube exhibited here is the prototype, an elementary architectural form that they used to test the "universal" dimension of the project. The "Misura" or "Supersurface" of plastic laminate was layered over blockboard, which was actually constructed using traditional cabinetry. The "Misura" series evolved into the famous "Quaderna" series of furnishings by Zanotta (Fig. 2), which became a best-seller for the firm. The entire "Quaderna" series is in the collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Plastic laminate manufactured by Abet Print 24 x 317/8 x 305/8 in. (61 x 81x 77.8 cm)

Provenance:
The Giovanetti Collection, Pistoia, Italy, gift of Superstudio Private Collection, Monte Carlo Exhibited International Biennale of Industrial Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1969

Literature:
"Superstudio: Dal Catalogo Degli Istogrammi La Serie 'Misura,'" Domus, no. 517, December 1972, pp. 37-39 Gianni Pettena, Superstudio 1966-1982: Storie, figure, architettura, Florence, 1982, pp. 51 and 53 Stefano Casciani, ed., "'Neutral' Surfaces, a Radical Design Manifesto," in Furniture as Architecture, Milan, 1988, p. 100-103 (for a discussion of the series)