The remarkable career of designer and architect the late Cini Boeri, who was affectionately known as the "lady of Italian design”, is an important legacy. One of the first women to graduate in architecture, then working with Gio Ponti and Marco Zanuso before setting up her own studio, Boeri was at the forefront of the groundbreaking ideas coming out of Italy in the 1960s and 70s.
A trailblazer whose dedication to the craft produced not only furniture and architecture that continues to influence today, but a pathway for the women who followed. Against the backdrop of the 1960s push for equality and freedom, Boeri and designers including Charlotte Perriand and Lina Bo Bardi who came before her, all pushed through the reality of the times by effectively reshaping traditional norms.
For architect Cini Boeri who graduated from Milan’s Politecnico University in 1951, one of only three female graduates, her experience working in the studios of design legends Gio Ponti and then Marco Zanuso who introduced her to the furniture house Arflex, would cement the move to open her own design office in 1963.
The design scene in Milan at the time was a bustling melting pot of new ideas. Fuelled by the support of a changing furniture industry led by industrial heavyweights like Kartell and C&B, the group that famously split in 1966 to become B&B Italia and Cassina who remain two of the most important furniture houses today. Here, Gio Ponti, Achille Castiglioni and Anna Castelli Ferrieri (who founded Kartell), Marco Zanuso, Franco Albini, Tobia and Carlo Scarpa, Vico Magistretti and Cini Boeri, amongst others, were writing innovation into the future of furniture production and cementing Italy’s domination on the world stage.
Cini Boeri's first design for Arflex was the Serpentone sofa, an idea that produced the endless sofa using new materials and an innovative manufacturing process. Launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in 1971, pieces of the orgigiinal sofa can be found in gallery collections around the world. Photo c/o Arflex.
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Cini Boeri was part of the Italian design push, a talented cohort of creatives working across the disciplines and completing projects from architecture and furniture design, to objects, interiors and exhibition design. Boeri’s notable projects include the fabulous 1966 Casa Rotunda in Northern Sardinia, interiors for Knoll and Venini, and furniture for companies including Fiam, the Ghost Chair moulded from a single sheet of glass would become a classic, and Arflex, the company that began a collaboration with Boeri in the 1960s that would continue throughout her long career, ultimately elevating the reputation of both in the process.
“Cini had been collaborating with Arflex for many years when she came up with the revolutionary idea of Serpentone in 1971, a continuous sofa system to be sold by the metre”, explains Stefania Miotto who began working with Boeri when she joined Arflex in the 1990s. “Serpentone was made up of polyurethane foam modules, placed side by side and glued together. The 37cm modules were injection moulded with a lamellar section, that made it possible to draw curves, both concave and convex. It was made and used only for a presentation of the showroom in via Borgogna in Milan. As always, the idea was appreciated with great enthusiasm and after the exhibition it was divided into pieces and donated to museums.”
The design for the Botolo chair with its variation of short or long legs. Sketch c/o Arflex.
During the 60s Boeri was experimenting with materials and form that would define her design ouvre. Always with an elegant approach to the economy of form and material, her presence would help to normalise the role of women in the industry. In 1967 the flexible Bobo armchair was the first chair Boeri designed for Arflex, followed by the award winning Strips collection in 1968, a modular sofa with a removable cover (revolutionary at the time) that simultaneously launched the Arflex brand and was awarded the coveted Compasso d'Oro prize in 1979, the first woman to receive the accolade since the award began in 1954. More than fifty years later, Strips remains one of Arflex’s most popular pieces.
"It is used as a real shell to be paraded, washed, changed, re-strung and zipped like a dress over a polyurethane body," wrote Cini Boeri in 1974.
Following the spectacle around the launch of the Serpentone at the Milan Furniture Fair, Boeri went on to design the Botolo armchair with its variation of short or long legs, the Bengodi sofa that was revisited by Boeri in 2009, the Taboga armchair and the Cubotto series of cabinets.
“Her work has always been guided by research and functionality. In fact, we can see how the concepts of expandability and flexibility, assisted by experimentation with materials such as rubber and plastic, have taken shape, giving life to innovative pieces”, remarks Miotto. “During our meetings, Cini Boeri told me a lot about the collaboration with Arflex and about the difficulties for a woman entering a male world and being successful back then.”
The Bobo sofa designed by Cini Boeri for Arflex was one of Boeri's first designs for the group that expanded the notion of flexibility in the home. Photo c/o Arflex.
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The Ben Ben sofa designed by Boeri in the 1970s was revisited in 2009. Photo c/o Arflex.
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Cini Boeri worked well into her 90s and maintained a close relationship with the Arflex team. Photo c/o Arflex.
A drawing of the Serpentone sofa system that was made in modules. Photo c/o Arflex.
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The Strips sofa by Cini Boeri is still one of Arflex's most popular sofas. Drawing c/o Arflex.
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Early developmont of the Strips sofa. Photo c/o Arflex.
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The Rotolo by Cini Boeri for Arflex. Photo c/o Arflex.
"Cini Boeri was one of the first women in the world of architecture and design of the last century, but also one with the most originality and innovative thinking. This is the great legacy she has left us.”
Stefania Miotto, Arflex
The Strips sofa designed in 1972 won Cini Boeri the Compasso d'Oro iin 1979. Photo c/o Arlex.
During the 1980s, Boeri balanced her practice with teaching urban and industrial design at the Politecnico University in Milan. Like many of her peers, teaching the next generation of designers was an important part of her studio practice. She also travelled widely to speak at conferences, and had her work exhibited at many museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Triennale design museum in Milan. Ultimately her design was part of a daily ritual, and even at 96, she could be found in her studio every morning developing new ideas.
“Work was her life, it kept her young and stimulated her. Even in the last few months, despite the fatigue, she kept on designing and drawing”, recalls Miotto “Cini Boeri, (Cini, short for “piccinin" which means "little one"), passed away on September 9, 2020, at the age of 96. A world-famous Italian architect and designer without snobbery or diva attitudes. By curious coincidence, she passed away on the day of the Compasso d'Oro awards ceremony. It is an award she received twice, once for the Strips sofa and then again in 2011 to commemorate her design career. Cini Boeri was one of the first women in the world of architecture and design of the last century, but also one with the most originality and innovative thinking. This is the great legacy she has left us.”
