Giancarlo Piretti for Anonymous

GIANCARLO PIRETTI (Bologna, 1940) for Anonymous.
Folding table "Platone".
Exhibits wear marks noticeable in the photographs.
Measurements: 70 x 82 x 64 cm.
The Platone folding desk was designed by Giancarlo Piretti in 1970. The three-disc mechanism is the common thread of all of Piretti's best-sellers, of which Platone is the most daring. With a sturdy cantilevered top, it is a practical, folding desk, ideal for contemporary space requirements, such as study and work areas.
Giancarlo Piretti, is a central figure in the history of 20th century Italian industrial design. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where he developed a solid foundation in the visual and design arts that would mark his career as a designer. Later, he shared his knowledge as a professor of Interior Design at the Bologna State Institute of Art, contributing to the training of new generations of designers.
His international recognition came in 1967, during the Milan Furniture Fair, where he presented an innovative mechanism for folding chairs that was a milestone in the design of functional furniture. This innovation gave rise to the iconic Plia, considered the folding chair par excellence, which combined elegance, functionality and large-scale production. This creation not only brought him immediate prestige, but also consolidated his technical and ergonomic approach to design.
Throughout his career, Piretti developed the so-called Piretti Collection, an extensive series of more than fifty different seating models. Many of these incorporate patented mechanisms, including a particularly notable one that allows the backrest tension to be automatically adjusted according to the user's weight. This approach anticipated many of the ergonomic solutions that are now standard in contemporary office furniture.
Giancarlo Piretti's work is characterized by his rationalist vision, his attention to technical detail and his ability to create functional objects with a sober and enduring aesthetic, placing him as an undisputed benchmark of modern Italian design.