Chaise Longue 'Torso' by Paolo Deganello for Cassina

The Italian architect Paolo Deganello (b. 1940 in Este near Padua) graduated in architecture in Florence in 1966 and in the same year founded the group Archizoom Associati together with Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti and Massimo Morozzi, one of the central protagonists of Italian Radical Design. His best-known furniture design, the Aeo armchair (Model 563) for Cassina from 1973, was conceived as a deliberate counter-design to Tobia Scarpa's luxurious Soriana armchair: a visible frame of bent tubular steel and steel springs, complemented by elements of Moplen plastic and a removable, washable canvas cover. The armchair was delivered disassembled and assembled by the buyer. This deliberately simple, repairable construction was inspired by the aesthetics of Arte Povera. After Archizoom was dissolved in 1974, Deganello worked freelance as an architect and designer in Milan and has taught design at ISIA Florence since 1991.