Biography
Luigi Colani for sure has written design history as one of the most versatile designers of the 20th century. Throughout his career, he not only worked in a wide variety of design fields, but also revolutionized entire industries in the process. In both his private and professional life, he moved between Europe and Asia. Colani celebrated his greatest successes in Japan, where he worked as a designer for a wide range of major companies, including Mazda, Sony and Canon.
Born in Berlin, Luigi (Lutz) Colani received great recognition for his aerodynamic designs for cars and airplanes and the design of everyday objects, until he ultimately entered the world of furniture design in the 1960s with innovative ideas. He dedicated his work to the conception of new biomorphic creations, which he developed primarily from the organic formal language of Art Nouveau. Thus, thinking of a 'renaissance of Art Nouveau', he pursued a variety of disciplines in an experimental manner to create countless unique prototypes. With various designs for renowned manufacturers such as Villeroy&Boch or Rosenthal, he succeeded in reaching a broad public.
Colani's idea of forming furniture from a single piece of plastic is probably the one that remains most important for industrial design. With this idea he captured the zeitgeist of the 1960s and 70s. The result is a futuristic-looking chair called 'The Colani', which fits the shape of the human body and creates a new and humorous way of sitting.
Colani's approach to aesthetic theory is impressively illustrated in his portfolio 'Ylem'. Here he calls for a renegotiation of human interaction with nature, using primarily drawings, with the result that he had a lasting influence on the 20th century.
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