Geometry, Simplicity, Play: Exhibiting Vico Magistretti maps the ideas behind the Vico Magistretti-Travelling Archive exhibition at Melbourne Design Week 2019, tracing how conceptual simplicity, geometry, and playfulness animate Magistretti's work across both industrial design and architecture.
About This Book
Published in the centenary year of Vico Magistretti's birth, this book extends the conversation begun at Melbourne Design Week 2019 into a sustained critical engagement with one of Italian design's most quietly radical figures. Through texts and illustrations, Baracco and Wright examine the theoretical foundations of Magistretti's practice — the way geometry functions not as decoration but as a generative discipline, and the way a spirit of play underpins what might otherwise read as formal restraint. Essential reading for anyone interested in the intellectual history of Italian modernism and the relationship between architecture and product design.
Key Features
- Contributors: Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright
- Projects by Vico Magistretti drawn from industrial design and architecture fields
- Published by Actar, 2006
What You'll Discover
- How Magistretti's concept of ‘conceptual simplicity’ operates as a design methodology rather than an aesthetic preference
- The relationship between geometry and playfulness in Magistretti's work across furniture, objects, and buildings
- The curatorial thinking behind the Vico Magistretti-Travelling Archive exhibition and how exhibition-making can function as design criticism
- The broader international discourse surrounding Magistretti's legacy in his centenary year, situating his contribution within contemporary design thought
About the Author
Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright are the authors and curators behind the Vico Magistretti-Travelling Archive exhibition presented at Melbourne Design Week 2019. Their work engages the intersection of design practice, exhibition-making, and critical writing.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: [Details available upon request]
- Dimensions: 240 x 288 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781948765527
- Publisher: Actar
- Publication Date: 2006
Perfect For: Architects, designers, and historians with an interest in Italian modernism, design theory, or the work of Vico Magistretti; curators and educators exploring the relationship between exhibition practice and critical discourse.