13.05.2022

La grande Milano in Triennale

The permanent presence of Aldo Rossi’s Grande Milano chair, in the gardens of Milan’s Triennale exhibition center, is a symbolic gesture of great significance. It is a tribute to Aldo Rossi, an undisputed master of 20th century learning and a protagonist of international architecture – he was the first Italian architect to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1990; he embodies the memory of Milan, the city in which he was born, he studied and qualified and which he knew well and loved dearly – his first participation in the Milan Triennale dates back to 1960; it renews the long-term cooperation between the Triennale and the Molteni Group, not only as a design company, but also as a personal tribute from the Molteni family.

The Milano chair has been made in different sizes. One version on a scale of 7:1 was placed for the first time in 1991 in Cologne, outside the Pesch Wohnen showroom, on the occasion of an exhibition of Aldo Rossi’s design.

Placed in the heart of the city’s historic center, the chair has always aroused great interest and admiration, imposing but also pleasing. An object on a different scale, a structure that complies with Rossi’s idea of creating domestic objects that relate to the surrounding buildings.

“I even repeated my seal, a gift from Uchida. It seems to me that this seal gives me a mild strength and numerous other things linked to its beauty and to the way of understanding, differently, how we understand things” (1) - A.R.

(1) Quaderni Azzurri nr.34 – July 1988

Molteni&C made the Milano chair their own symbol, representing the union between the material, wood, and structural expertise, distinguished by rigorous design and excellent quality.