Given the coordinated look of the Mario Casa Living collection, you might be surprised to learn that the creative foundation of Mario Casa Living originates in a radical avant-garde design group of the nineteen-seventies: Studio Alchimia.
Mario Gagliardi, the designer of Mario Casa Living, became acquainted with the work and credo of Studio Alchimia through his former teacher and mentor Alessandro Mendini. With the goal to bring the most radical concepts into reality, Studio Alchimia was built upon the energy of groups such as Archizoom while creating the foundation for the subsequent Memphis Group.
Studio Alchimia was established by Alessandro Guerriero in Milan in 1976 with Alessandro Mendini, Andrea Branzi, Michele de Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass. They rejected the minimalist approach that had guided modern movements such as the Bauhaus. Studio Alchimia’s concept of “Nuovo Design” embraced new technologies while being commited to expressive form and color. They displayed design prototypes at their “Bau.Haus uno” exhibition in 1978 and “Bau.Haus due” in the following year, and a critically acclaimed appearance at the Venice Biennale in 1980. In 1981, Studio Alchimia won the Compasso d’Oro award for their innovative approach to design research.
Based on the radical work of Studio Alchimia, Ettore Sottsass developed a more approachable design style and created the Memphis Group, whose work was enthusiastically received around the world and became the definitive style of the nineteen-eighties and nineties. Studio Alchimia continued to work and influence the design community until 1992. To this day, the work of Studio Alchimia and the Memphis Group play a central role in the history of design.
For Mario Gagliardi, the contact to Studio Alchimia and the Memphis Group in his early years was an important catalyst for his own approach to design. He recalls that for Alessandro Mendini, design was not, as it is often used today, just a stylistic fad created to sell more. Rather, design was to be a poetic and philosophical expression of humanity.
While the work of Studio Alchimia was influential in inspiring his creativity, the approach of his second teacher, designer Richard Sapper, was important as well, says Mario. Born in Munich, Sapper moved to Milan, where he designed iconic products such as the Tizio lamp for Artemide and the Whistling Teapot 9091 for Alessi before becoming chief designer for IBM. Combining German rationality with an element of surprise was Sapper´s forte.
Alessandro Mendini created a world of unrestricted creativity, while Richard Sapper started with technical rationality and refined it with a human touch. Mario’s design process has elements of both approaches, but always starts with artistic intuition and a “Gesamtkunstwerk” or “total design” approach. “As a designer”, he says,”your aim is to create new worlds for people to explore and feel comfortable in”. “These worlds have to be interesting and varied while being held together by a stylistic red thread. Elements of reflection and meditation have to be there as well as pleasant surprises.”
Mario is against “isms” (minimalism, maximalism…) as they tend to make everything the same. Instead, his interest is in the universal context and integrity of objects, in their intent, cultural significance and mode of production.