Giovanni Offredi Midcentury secretary

Midcentury secretary by Giovanni Offredi

Giovanni Offredi (born 1927, Milan – died 2007, Milan) was a well-known Italian furniture and product designer. Unlike most other Italian furniture designers of his time, Giovanni Offredi was neither an architect nor did he start designing at the beginning of his career. Instead, Offredi fits in part with the career path of some talented contemporary designers. Who engage in product design outside of formal architectural training.
The earliest known furniture design work by Giovanni Offredi consists of exemplary furniture made specifically for some of Milan’s wealthy families. This is the case with the works that Offredi created in 1960 for Casa C. in Gorgonzola, a small town 22 kilometers from Milan. These works were designed with a surprisingly minimalist simplicity and elegance. They clearly demonstrated a hallmark of his design work with the use of angular lines and exposed metal or wooden frames. Not unlike some modern Scandinavian designs of the period.

Furniture manufacturer Saporiti

In the late 1960s, Giovanni Offredi met Sergio Saporiti, the owner of the Italian design store and furniture manufacturer Saporiti.I n 1970 Offredi entered into a partnership with the furniture manufacturer. This partnership was to be long and successful. Resulting in many furniture designs of marked precision that were clearly modern and innovative. Later had considerable commercial success. Among the most famous furniture designs that Offredi created for Saporiti is the Paracarro table (1970). Which consists of a simple cylindrical concrete base with a cross-shaped metal section on the top and a glass top.

The Sail Chair (1973); the Wave dining chairs (1974) and the Wave sofa and lounge chair (1975).
Oval elliptical tables P600 and P650, which were similar to the Paracarro table but larger and equipped with two bases and in some cases with wooden bases instead of concrete bases. In 1984, Giovanni Offredi partnered with premium Italian cabinet and kitchen manufacturer Snaidero and created several configurations. These include Krios (1984), Kalia (1986), Pragma (1987), Contralto (1988) and Kube (2006). Giovanni Offredi’s affinity with modernism and its meaning caused a certain disillusionment as he witnessed the development of the postmodern movement beyond its early years.

On this subject he said the following: “Italian design, which always derived its success from the balance between rationality and imagination, seems to have lost this harmony.”

The longing for the “new” has caused confusion. Some are involved in forced attempts and think about finding space in the market and achieving success. Postmodernism emerged as an act of polemic against certain rationalist positions that had become fossilized over time and was established out of the desire to renew certain forms and free them from their rigidity. But unfortunately it has changed to identify with the search for something new at all costs. Postmodernism has failed to go beyond the surface, it has failed to give content to its forms. We are no longer dealing with a cultural fact but with a fashionable fact, and beyond rationality there is only passion, the fleeting, the ephemeral.”

Source: Casati Galleries

As a decoration for this midcentury secretary, we suggest this Cubist table clock.

Art Deco at RSA Wiesbaden

You can find more Art Deco cabinets, Art Deco chests of drawers and Art Deco lamps in my shop in Wiesbaden. Regine Schmitz-Avila – your specialist for French Art Deco furniture and art objects from around 1930.