In occasion of Milan Design Week 2018, the Sala degli Affreschi dell’Umanitaria in Via San Barnaba hosted the Tribute to Luigi Caccia Dominioni, organized by B&B Italia. The installation was a curation of some of the designer’s most famous works to celebrate a recent license agreement between the two. For design fans around the world, this was one event not to be missed at Fuorisalone 2018.

Luigi Caccia Dominioni passed away at the age of 103 in November 2016 after an illustrious career as a refined architect for the Milanese bourgeoisie. His work was distinguished by a complex spatial articulation and the use of precious materials. Among his most famous works: Casa Caccia Dominioni in Piazza Sant’Ambrogio (1949-1953), a residential building in Via Nievo (1954-1955), a residential building in Piazza Carbonari (1960-1961), a commercial building in Corso Monforte (1963-1964, where the Flos showroom is hosted on the ground floor), and Casa Geronazzo in Via Tamburini (1960-1968).

B&B Italia’s decision to reproduce the re-editions was more than an exercise in nostalgia. Paying homage to the great maestros of design means weaving their pieces and the history of industrial design itself into the contemporary stylings of today. More and more customers are looking to fuse the worlds together by mixing and matching the iconic pieces with those of today, as can be seen in other collaborations: Molteni&Co and Giò Ponti, Cassina and Le Corbusier, Zanotta and Carlo Mollino, Flos and the Castiglioni brothers, and Agape and Angelo Mangiarotti.

The historic pieces from Dominioni also evoke a timeless sense of design, which represent an artisanal know-how we continue to strive for today.

TRIBUTE TO LUIGI CACCIA DOMINIONI. INSTALLAZIONE DI B&B ITALIA AL FUORISALONE 2018pinterest
Courtesy Photo

A reserved individual, Luigi Caccia Dominioni boasted an aristocratic intellect and an unmistakable style that contributed to the success of the so-called Milanese School. But what is the Milanese School? Heading back in time to the early 1950’s, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, one of the four architects and founders of BBPR, was invited by Vogue America to write an article on the creative panorama in Italy. Rogers titled the article, Milan, Design, Renaissance: a story of the city that was reborn after the devastation of the war and where a kind of Neo-Humanism takes hold thanks to unique conditions in the territory.

The vision of the Milanese School, a title owed to Ernesto Nathan Rogers, is an approach to design that includes theory, technique, and craftsmanship: disciplines which were developed in the studio of William Morris and Walter Gropius. In the early 1950’s, the practice of a young group of ambitious Milanese architects and designers spanned all scales, from city planning to furnishings. It was all accompanied by the philosophy and aesthetic sensibility geared towards envisioning a style of the homo novus.

Who were they? In the article from Vogue, photos from Irving Penn include portraits of Ignazio Gardella, Franco Albini, the members of BBPR, Marco Zanuso, and Luigi Caccia Dominioni who together with Ignazio Gardella, Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua and Vico Magistretti had already founded Azucena in 1949, the artisanal company producing furnishings for the Milanese bourgeoisie.

Today, the furniture designed by Caccia Dominioni will be made more easily available thanks to B&B Italia, who will reproduce, among others, the Catilina chair in three versions, distinguished by a slender, curved iron structure. Then there’s the ABCD sofa and armchair with Neo-Romantic lines, upholstered in soft velvet and fitted with wheels, the Chinotto armchairs in leather with a solid geometry, and the Toro sofa and armchair, which evoke the American streamlining of the 1920’s (including the original reading light incorporated in the back). Finally, who could forget the essential Cilindro ottoman, or the Fascia Specchiata table in glass and metal, decomposing the spiral? The natural elegance of Caccia Dominioni reflects an industrious Milan — discreet and refined — that helped establish the city as a capital of design.

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