Knoll Albini Mini Desk Designed by Franco Albini

Franco Albini (1905-1977) was one of the most rigorous Italian architects, urban planners, and designers. An exponent of Italian rationalism since 1929, after graduating from the Polytechnic of Milan, he began to collaborate with internationally renowned architects such as Gio Ponti, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier. During his activity as a designer, Albini creates iconic pieces such as the Luisa chair, the Tre Pezzi armchair, and the Veliero and Infinito bookcases for Cassina, the Fiorenza armchair for Arflex and other furniture and furnishing accessories still in production and appreciated all over the world. Fascinated also by lighting design, he created suspension, floor and table lamps for Nemo. Franco Albini received numerous prizes and awards including three Compasso d'Oro (1955, 1958, 1964) the Olivetti Prize for Architecture and the "Royal Designer for Industry" prize from the Royal Society of London in 1971. In 2007 it was created in Milan, at the Albini and Franca Helg studio, the Franco Albini Foundation to divulge the design method of the great master craftsman.