In their imagining an object functional to the gesture of gripping a lever to trigger an action that transforms the space by opening or closing, Franco Albini and Franca Helg designed a handle with the lightness of a bird’s wing, and the profile of a flower. They travelled a road directed toward the expression of organic shapes. The Agata handle reflects their keen search for a point of equilibrium between one thing and its opposite – between a sensual organic mood and geometric linearity; between solidity and lightness; between a precise graphic mark and the volumetric consistency of the material.

  • MATERIALBrass

  • TYPOLOGYRound

AGATA, 1965

All the typical qualities of Albini and Helg’s experimentation with form are recognisable in this small object proportioned to the scale of a hand: making the material lighter; the search for fluid lines; slender geometric shapes; a certain propensity for tapered forms; exactitude; and subtle elegance that is modern and classic at the same time.

— La Rinascente: scala, Roma 1957

— Franco Albini e Franca Helg

Among ergonomic handles, this is a classic of good Italian design.

— Franco Albini, Tre Pezzi poltrona, Poggi 1959

— Franco Albini, Margherita, poltrona, Vittorio Bonacina 1956

— Franco Albini, Fiorenza poltrona, Arflex 1952-1955

— Linea 1 della Metropolitana Milanese: corrimano (F.Albini, F.Helg, A.Piva, B. Noorda) 1962-1964

— Franco Albini, “Stanza per un Uomo”, VI Triennale di Milano 1936

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