Marcello Nizzoli
Marcello Nizzoli (Italian pronunciation:
Working life
After graduating from the
The Sala delle Medaglie d’Oro, in which the achievements of Italy's gold-medallist aviators were fêted at the Mostra Dell’aeronautica Italiana in Milan (1934), was an important symbolic use of the Rationalist three-dimensional grid visually to enhance as well as define function. The use of linear elements was further extended for decorative as well as spatial purposes in the Parker shop (1934–5), Milan. With Giancarlo Palanti they designed the Salone d’Onore at the
The first of a long series of calculating machines, the MC 4S Summa, was created in the Olivetti planning and research office, surroundings highly favourable to collaboration between artists and technicians. It set the pattern for future projects. In-depth consideration was given to technical and ergonomic aspects of the product and to easy user-identification of its parts, resulting in a unified concept, based on careful analysis rather than on an a priori formula.
Inventions
Nizzoli's two best-known design projects are the Olivetti typewriter Lexicon 80 (1948) and the Necchi Mirella sewing machine (1957). He also designed the iconic Aurora 88 fountain pen (1948). He continued his architectural work, along the lines laid down by Persico in the early 1930s, working towards the integration of the arts with architecture, as in the E.N.I. office block (1956–8; with G. M. Oliveri) at San Donato Milanese, Milan.