Carlo Mollino
Encyclopedia
Biography
Born in TurinTurin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, Carlo Mollino was the son of Eugenio Mollino, an engineer. As he grew up, Carlo Mollino became interested in a variety of topics that were as outrageous as his art, such as design, architecture, the occult, and race cars.
He was once credited as saying, "Everything is permissible as long as it is fantastic." That credo was certainly reflected throughout his body of work. Mollino's architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
are famous for their ability to enable occupants to manipulate volumes at a whim.
Carlo Mollino died in 1973, while still working.
Architecture
In 1930, Carlo Mollino started his career as an architect designing a house in Forte dei MarmiForte dei Marmi
Forte dei Marmi is a sea town and comune in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany . It is the birthplace of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians....
and receiving the G. Pistono prize for architecture. Between 1933 and 1948, he worked in his father's office, and took part in several architecture competitions (e.g. the Farmers Association Building in Cuneo, the Fascist House in Voghera, and, after World War II, the Monument to the Partisan, which was created in collaboration with the sculptor Umberto Mastroianni
Umberto Mastroianni
Umberto Mastroianni , was an Italian abstract sculptor. In 1989, he received the first Praemium Imperiale for sculpture. During World War II, he was in the Italian resistance movement.He was the uncle of the actor Marcello Mastroianni....
. The Monument to the Partisan was placed in the Generale cemetery of Turin after winning the competition.
Between 1936 and 1939, Mollino designs, in collaboration with Vittorio Baudi di Selve, the Società Ippica Torinese building in Turin, considered his masterpiece. However, this building was destroyed in 1960. This work breaks with the past and the regime, refusing the rationalist school and taking inspiration from Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...
and Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn was a Jewish German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.-Early life:...
.
Carlo Mollino loved the mountains and was a ski enthusiast; he wrote the book "Trattato sul Discesismo" where he explained his personal skiing technique with many illustrations. He designed some mountain houses like the Casa del Sole in Cervinia
Cervinia
Breuil-Cervinia is an alpine resort in the Valle d'Aosta region of northwest Italy...
, Aosta Valley and the Slittovia of Lago Nero in Sauze d'Oulx
Sauze d'Oulx
Sauze d'Oulx is a town and comune in the province of Turin, Piedmont located 80 kilometres from Turin in the Val di Susa, at the foot of monte Genevris ....
, in Piedmont. In this work, all the art of Mollino is shown: a large, modern terrace protruding from the main volume contrasts with the traditional materials of the building. This building, placed on the ski runs and reachable during the winter only by ski, has been restored in 2001 and now contains temporary expositions.
In 1952, Mollino designed the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
Auditorium in Turin, which was radically restored bringing big changes to the original structure in 2006.
In the first half of the sixties, he directed the team of architects responsible for the design of the INA-Casa district in Turin and he is placed second in the competition for the design of the Palazzo del Lavoro building in Turin, won by Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer. He studied at the University of Bologna and qualified in 1913. Dr. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946-61...
, for the 100th anniversary celebration of the unification of Italy (1961).
In the last years of his life (between 1965 and 1973) he designed the two buildings that made him famous: the Camera di Commercio building and the Teatro Regio Torino
Teatro Regio Torino
The Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each....
(Regio Theater), both in Turin. Before his death he completed the projects for the FIAT Directional Centre in Candiolo, the AEM building in Turin, and the Club Mediterranèe in Sestriere
Sestriere
Sestriere is an alpine village in Italy, a comune of the Province of Turin. It is from the French border. Its name derives from Latin: ad petram sistrariam, that is at sixty Roman miles from Turin....
.
Buildings
- Società Ippica Torinese, TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
(1937, destroyed in 1960) - Slittovia del lago Nero, Sauze d'OulxSauze d'OulxSauze d'Oulx is a town and comune in the province of Turin, Piedmont located 80 kilometres from Turin in the Val di Susa, at the foot of monte Genevris ....
(1946) - House on the Agra plateau (1952)
- Auditorium RAIRAIRAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, Turin (1952) - Casa del Sole, CerviniaCerviniaBreuil-Cervinia is an alpine resort in the Valle d'Aosta region of northwest Italy...
(1955) - Widening of Aeroclub Torino building, Turin (1958)
- Camera di commercio, Turin (1964)
- Teatro Regio TorinoTeatro Regio TorinoThe Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each....
, Turin (1973)
Apartments and interiors
- Casa Miller, Turin (1938)
- Casa Devalle, Turin (1939)
- Casa Minola, Turin (1944)
- Casa Orengo, Turin (1949)
- Casa Pistoi, Turin (1968)
Furniture
A world record price for a piece of 20th Century Furniture was set in June 2005 when a piece designed by Carlo Mollino was auctioned by Christie's New York in June 2005. An oak and glass table for Casa Orengo, 1949 sold for $3,824,000Works and projects unrealized
- 1940: Reconstruction of the shelter Kind a Sauze d'Oulx
- 1954: Expansion of the hospital in Rivoli (Torino)
- 1954: Cappella dell'istituto Luce Nuova di Giaveno
- 1966: Plan of Sauze d'Oulx
- 1968: Dépendance Branca (garage with services) Lignan – Saint Barthèlemy (Nus – Aosta)