CARLO MOLLINO (1905-1973)
- STYLE ALPHABET
- Oct 2, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 23
Carlo Mollino was a polymath and a renaissance man - a photographer, designer, writer, avid skier, architect and of course a wunderkind engineer who designed furniture to automobile through staged erotic portraits of women.
Born in 1906, he became a promiment Italian designer and architect who in the 1930's was amongst the very few architects to introduce elements of Surrealist art and culture into the Modern Movement.
During his career he built over 300 buildings of different typologies, including the largest hospital in town.
He studied architecture at the Polytechnic University in Turin - the place of his birth.
At the beginning of his career, Mollino collaborated with his father - civil engineer Eugenio Mollino (1873-1953) - who ran an engineering company.
This is in the late 1930's when he started going solo and his design career took off.
He was technically-minded which can be reflected in his meticulous approach to constructing furniture but also designing race car driving.
Today the Turinese architect, designer, photographer, pilot, and race driver is regarded as one of the most fascinating creative minds of the last century.
He passed away in his native Turin in 1973, aged 68. Design and architecture were given completely new dimensions through his endless creative passion and love for life. Mollino was a designer all his own.
