Giancarlo Piretti for Anonima Castelli.

GIANCARLO PIRETTI (Bologna, 1940) for Anonima Castelli.
“Platone” desk and “Plia” chair.
Chrome-plated metal and plastic.
Measurements: 70 x 74 x 64 cm (desk); 74 x 46 x 44 cm (chair).
The Platone folding desk was designed by Giancarlo Piretti in 1970. The three-disc mechanism is the common thread running through all of Piretti’s bestsellers, of which Platone is the most daring. With a sturdy cantilevered tabletop, it is a practical, foldable desk. The Plia chair features the same mechanism and was designed by Giancarlo Piretti in 1967. Unveiled at the 1967 Milan Furniture Fair, the Plia was met with an extraordinary reception from the moment it debuted. Its success was such that, according to the manufacturer itself, some visitors even took chairs from the booth, forcing the company to secure the chairs with chains. The Plia’s historical significance was later cemented by its inclusion in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where it is cataloged as the “Plia Folding and Stacking Chair,” dated 1967 and manufactured by Anonima Castelli.
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 shape his career as a designer. Later, he shared his knowledge as a professor of interior design at the State Art Institute of Bologna, helping to train new generations of designers. He gained international recognition in 1967 at the Milan Furniture Fair, where he presented an innovative mechanism for folding chairs that marked a milestone in functional furniture design. Throughout his career, Piretti developed the so-called Piretti Collection, a comprehensive series of more than fifty different seating models.