The ’70s Consecrate Italian Design Worldwide

The 1970s were a period of transition and rapid change, in which many movements overlapped. During the era of protest, disco dance, and hallucinogenic drugs, the Italian family evolved. In 1974, the country went to the polls for the divorce referendum, and homes changed accordingly. Spaces became smaller, much more time was spent in front of the television, and furnishings adapted to the new customs.

Floor lamps were produced because the dining room and living room had become part of a single space, and armchairs became much more comfortable for watching television more easily and for longer periods. New “living cells” were born, inspired by those of designer Joe Colombo, who in 1969 created Visiona ’69 for Bayer—an integrated cell defined by different “functional stations“: the Night-Cell block (bedroom, wardrobe, and bathroom), the Kitchen-Box (kitchen and dining), and the Central-Living (living room).

In 1972, Italian design was consecrated in the eyes of the world with the exhibition “Italy: the new domestic landscape” at MoMA in New York, the first exhibition dedicated to the contemporary design of a single country. People began to speak of “emotional” design, while industrial design proposed fragmented and provocative languages while remaining faithful in the design sphere to the pragmatic values of the industrial production process. Objects were ironic, colorful, and highly decorated.

These were years in which there was an air of protest and, at the same time, reflection. Artists met, exchanged ideas, and discussed architecture, cinema, and art—but never politics. At the end of the 1960s, several historic architecture and design groups were born, such as Archizoom and the Florentine Superstudio in ’66, and Alchimia in ’76, which would give rise to important projects in the fields of design, interior design, and architecture.