INSTALLATION FOR EXHIBITION DESIGN ‘’COMPASSO D’ORO" 1960

An exhibition of the best industrial design objects for the year 1960

Project data

  • Year
    1960
  • Tipology
    Exhibition Design
  • Location
    Milan, Italy – Palazzo Reale 
  • Client
    A.D.I. Associazione per il Disegno Industriale – Milano
  • Total Area/Surface/Volume
    1000 sq m

Description

Newly graduated, Mario Bellini was asked by Augusto Morello and by Gio Ponti, promoters of the Compasso d’oro, a design award managed since 1958 by ADI (Associazione del Disegno industriale), to design in the Hall of the Caryatids in the Palazzo Reale in Milan the exhibition for the objects and furniture awarded and selected in that year’s edition.

The design was particularly theatrical for the surprising presence in the space of the Hall of the 10 winning projects and the 22 selected, all freely exhibited. A sports car, a large camping tent, a tourist plane, a Flying Dutchman boat with sails and with the spinnaker kept bulging by an unseen fan, were the most memorable elements of the exhibition.

The photographic exhibition showing genesis of the Prize is instead done by means of a series of panels put on the walls in a tidy manner.
The show, which opened from 25 February to 12 March 1960, was Mario Bellini’s debut.

(Ermanno Ranzani)

Credits

Giuria
Lodovico Belgiojoso, Vico Magistretti, Augusto Magnaghi, Augusto Morello, Marco Zanuso

Commissione Internazionale per i Gran Premi:
Franco Albini, Aldo Borletti, Silvio Coggi, Hans  Curiel, Kaj Franck, Ivan Matteo Lombardo, Marcello Nizzoli.