Alberto Rosselli for Saporiti 'Speedy' Modular Wall-Unit in Red

Alberto Rosselli for Saporiti, wall-unit ‘Speedy’, plastic, chrome-plated metal, Italy, 1970s

With regard to its form, material use, and color, this wall unit is a true representative of postmodern furniture of the seventies. The bookcase is arranged in three columns, of which the shelves and a container can be arranged freely. Therefore, various configurations can be created. For instance, you can pair shelves together to form a writing table. The open and clean layout allows the user to display its treasured and valued belongings. The revolutionary use of plastic as a new material to make furniture is clearly documented in this iconic shelf.

Alberto Rosselli (1921-1976) was born in Palermo, capital of the island of Sicily in Italy. After he graduated in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1947, he stayed and worked in Milan. In 1950, Rosselli, Gio Ponti, and Antonio Fornaroli formed the architecture/design firm Studio Ponti Fornaroli Rosselli (P.F.R) where he worked on his first architectural project ‘Pirelli Tower’ in 1954. During the same year, with the help of Ponti, he founded and directed his own journal titled ‘Stile Industria’, which focused on improving the relationship between design and industry in Italy. The issues incorporated topics that touched on different disciplines, such as design, architecture, and arts, which made significant contributions to the design discourse until its last publication in 1963. He became an acknowledged pioneer of industrial design, co-founding the Association for Industrial Design (ADI) in 1956, and between 1961 and 1963, working as a vice-president for the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). Here, he pursued a career in the academic field where he developed new teaching that embodied sophisticated methodological principles. He introduced the concept and process of “decision-making” in design to the faculty of architecture in the University of Milan. Rosselli passed away in 1976, who left his mark as an architect, designer, and university lecture, a man known for his theoretical approach to industrial design.

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