Franco Bettonica (1927-1999) E Gianfranco Frattini (1926-2004) Biography
Franco Bettonica is a renowned Italian designer and architect. In 1969, together with his colleague Mario Melocchi, he founded the Cini&Nils brand. Bettonica's ambition pushes him to anticipate the experiments of the 70s. In this period, the field of design undergoes important changes and Bettonica faces the challenge by creating cutting-edge and functional design objects. In 1972, he designed and created the Cuboluce table lamp, an object still considered extremely current today. It is a bedside lamp designed to be turned on and off with a simple gesture such as raising and lowering the lid. The Cuboluce table lamp is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Gianfranco Frattini was born in Padua in 1926, and is one of the most important architects and designers on the Italian artistic scene. In his fifty-year career, he has stood out for his interior and product design projects, helping to spread Made in Italy throughout the world. After graduating from the Polytechnic of Milan in 1953, under the guidance of teachers such as Piero Portaluppi, Renato Camus and Gio Ponti, Frattini began his career at the latter's studio, where he had the opportunity to meet emblematic figures of the Modern Movement like Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer. In 1956 he opened his studio together with Franco Bettonica, and began to collaborate with companies such as Poltrona Frau, Bernini, Lagostina and Bonacina, as well as designing interiors for private clients and emblematic places of Milanese social life, such as the Stork Club or the St .Andrews. Frattini's work can be defined as an organic whole, which involves all aspects of living, down to the smallest of objects, designed based on the relationship with the whole. The fluid space of its interiors is studied down to the smallest detail, and even the ceilings are the subject of particular attention. The same level of care is dedicated to the furnishings, lighting and furnishing accessories, for which Frattini did not limit himself to designing the project, but followed all the phases of creation of the object, going to the laboratories, the research and development and assembly lines, in order to find solutions together with manufacturers. Frattini leaves us in 2004.
