When the architect from Como designed the furnishings for the Casa del Fascio and the crèche in his city in the 1930s, he certainly never imagined that they would become design items.
In 1965 Aurelio Zanotta and Michele Provinciali started producing (repeatedly and changing variants) the first reproductions of those furnishing items. The initiative was meant to become a successful trend – re-readings of historical pieces. The chair/stool Follia, followed by Lariana – the chair for writing desks -, were the first to be sent in for production. For the chair Sant’Elia (in Zanotta’s catalogne since 1983) instead, Terragni designed an elastic, well sprung, continuous curved steel tube frame. Back, seat and armrests were slightly padded and upholstered in black leather. The design is organic and ergonomic, unlike the stiff geometrical layout of his international colleagues’ rationalist seats. A small armchair designed to stand the test of time.
(note: the product Lariana mentioned in this article has been discontinued)
