Gianfranco Frattini
1926 - 2004, 意大利
Gianfranco Frattini 是意大利知名建筑师和设计师，在20世纪中叶的意大利设计运动中发挥了重要作用。他所创造的诸多家具，目前仍是各大品牌的标志性作品，同时在收藏市场中也备受追捧。
Frattini 在1926年出生于意大利 Padua，从米兰理工大学的建筑专业毕业后，跟随他的导师，同时也是20世纪意大利设计领域最重要的人物—— Gio Ponti 继续工作，他通过 Ponti 结识了很多著名现代主义设计师，包括 Oscar Niemeyer 奥斯卡·尼迈耶, Le Corbusier 勒·柯布西耶等，但认识意大利品牌 Cassina 的创始人 Cesare Cassina 切萨雷·卡西纳，则对开启他的职业生涯有着极为重要的意义。
20世纪50年代，Frattini 开始与 Cassina 合作，为品牌设计的 Model 849 休闲椅、Marema 套桌、Sesann 沙发等知名产品，经久不衰。除此之外，他还为 Artemide、Knoll、Poltrona Frau等其他品牌设计了家具和照明产品。Frattini 常用玻璃、钢管等材料，同时对于木材的使用，也有他自己雕塑般的独特风格。1961年，他为 Bernini 设计了 Model NO. 804 秘书柜，拉动卷帘门的同时，桌板即可延伸出来，柜子的正面和背面均有储物空间，木材和不锈钢结合的十分巧妙，是一件兼具功能和美感的家具。
Frattini 一生荣获了众多荣誉，包括 Compasso d’Oro 金罗盘奖、米兰三年展设计博物馆永久收藏、纽约现代艺术博物馆永久收藏等。他的设计历久弥新，在中古收藏市场中，他的作品依然极具价值。
Gianfranco Frattini is widely regarded as a mid-century master of Italian modern design. He was an award-winning architect and designer, and specialized in creating furniture and decor that is both decorative and practical — Frattini’s vintage desks, armchairs, nesting tables and other works are celebrated for their sophisticated merging of function and form.
Born in Padua in 1926, Frattini studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He later apprenticed with his teacher and mentor, Gio Ponti. Through Ponti — arguably the most important figure in 20th-century Italian architecture and design — Frattini met many notable modernist designers such as Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier, but an introduction to famed Italian entrepreneur Cesare Cassina would prove incredibly significant in helping launch his career.
During the mid-1950s, Frattini began to collaborate with Cassina’s eponymous company. He designed the brand’s acclaimed leather and walnut Model 849 lounge chair — a winner of the Compasso d’Oro award — the Marema nesting tables and the iconic Sesann collection. The latter, an enduring 1970s suite of impossibly welcoming leather-covered seating, is now produced by Tacchini. In addition to Cassina, Frattini created furniture and lighting for other manufacturers such as Bernini, Arteluce, Artemide, Knoll and more.
While many of his designs incorporate glass, tubular steel and other materials, Frattini loved working with wood. The sculptural Albero bookcase — an innovative floor-to-ceiling structure made in walnut that swings on a 360-degree vertical swivel axis — is a striking example of Frattini’s dedication to traditional woodworking techniques. In the early 1970s, he traveled to Japan with friend and collaborator Pierluigi Ghianda — a master Milanese cabinet maker — in order to study the work of artisans in Kyoto. The trip inspired his design of the Kyoto table, a work of solid beech with Canaletto walnut inserts that is part of the permanent collection of the Milan Triennale’s Design Museum.