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Bookcase

Aldo Rossi, 1994

The design of the Cartesio modular bookcase, created as a specific project for the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht (1990–1995), recaptures the typical façades of Aldo Rossi's buildings, composed of square windows with a central cross.

Design Aldo Rossi, 1994

Cartesio consists of cubic modular containers in painted sheet metal that can be combined to form bookcases of different lengths.

The structure and back are painted in bright colours — China red or Madonna blue — that recur in Rossi's designer objects and architecture.

The bookcase is stabilized by a brace and closed by a windowed wooden façade, or alternatively left open: a curtain wall made of a single plywood panel. Internal finishes in bright colours: China Red or Madonna Blue.

Cartesio was reissued in 2021 as part of the ARCHIVIOUNIFOR collection.

Design

Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi (Milan, May 3, 1931 - Milan, September 4, 1997) was one of the greatest Italian architects of the 1980’s. His Molteni Group collaboration marked his passage from masterful architect to an industrial designer. He created models and furnishings for the Museum of Maastricht, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and the reconstruction of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Aldo Rossi designed items that were destined to become icons of the 20th century.

Complete biography
Aldo Rossi

“Perhaps it is snobbery but the more I see the world, the more I feel being a citizen of it and the more I want to go back to the old way of things”

Aldo Rossi