Joe Ball

In the 1960s, in a region such as Tuscany which produced literally nothing in the field of design, Poltronova had all the best on its team: not just Ettore Sottsass, who was its art director, but Gae Aulenti, Paolo Portoghesi, Giovanni Michelucci, Angelo Mangiarotti, the Archizoom and Superstudio groups, De Pas-D’Urbino-Lomazzi; not just the mentors, but also the leading exponents of New Design who were then called radicals…

The Centro Studi Poltronova was created in 2005 for two reasons: to archive important documents associated with the original Poltronova Company, and also to make some of its more iconic furniture and lighting pieces available in the marketplace.