This paper is a discussion of post-World War II design in Italy. Italy emerged from military defeat and economic turmoil to become one of the most important leaders of world design. In the beginning, most of its significant designers had been trained as architects, who worked with manufacturers to establish highly sophisticated approaches that transformed functional, everyday objects into distinctive works of art.
At the end of World War II, Italy stood defeated by the Allied forces, its economy shattered by years of war and its reputation in the West suspect as a traitor and enemy. Yet the nation also had a long tradition as an artistic leader, and its artists were quick to draw on that heritage in recovering from the devastation of war. Penny Sparke writes:
The stylish, mass-produced pieces of furniture, decorative household goods, electrical appliances, office equipment, cars and, latterly, designer clothes and accessories that have earned Italy such a key position in the world of contemporary material culture are, in essence, a mirror of that countryÆs bid for modernity and of its struggle, through the century, to establish itself as one of the modern industrial nations (7).
Of course, Italian design did not spring into being from nothingness with the end of the war. Italy had enjoyed a centuries-long artistic tradition, and twentieth century Italian design had its roots in pre-war developments. Nina Bornsen-Holtmann observes, ôA number of designs which still seem remarkably fresh and modern to us today originated at this timeö (11). Unlike designers in most other Western countries, Italians were not typically trained as designers. Instead, post-war Italian design arose out of the architectural tradition. As Anne McGregor Parsons observes, ôNearly all the members of the group of designers who began practising as independent designers of interiors and industrial goods immediately following the Second World...