2023-08-03 23:26:13
“It’s hard to forget someone who has given me so much to remember. A gentleman, a master, a special person», writes designer Daniele Lo Scalzo Moscheri on Instagram. Since the news of the death of Rodolfo Dordoni, the Milanese architect and designer who left an indelible mark on the way of designing, was leaked on August 1st, the entire design community, colleagues, friends, journalists, company owners, have flooded social media with messages of affection. Even simple design aficionados have posted a photo or shared a memory, because Dordoni has entered everyone’s homes with his numerous projects – from sofas to pots, from lamps to bathroom fixtures. In the studio, and more intimately, they called him Rudi, e everyone remembers him for his elegance, gentle manners, grace, that discreet smile, just hinted at, a grace and balance that were reflected in his rational and balanced design. Many of him talk about his humour, his passion for cooking, and for Ottone, the inseparable Hungarian pointer to whom he was bound by a paternal love.
«Together forever, I will miss you immensely my dear Rodolfo», writes the Maltese designer and lifelong companion, Gordon Guillaumier, sharing two shots that portray them together: the first, in black and white, beautiful in their prime, the second with a few more wrinkles, but always smiling and accomplices.
From Cassina to Molteni&C, from Roda to Moroso, from Artemide to FontanaArte, Dordoni has worked with the most important design companies, and with the architecture studio he has developed eclectic projects for residential spaces, shops and showrooms, hotels, restaurants, yachts, exhibitions and exhibition stands, including those memorable for Minotti.
Here we tell it through the words of those who knew him closely: partner Luca Zaniboni, the Minotti family with whom Dordoni worked for over 25 years as art director; Carlo Urbinati, founder and president of Foscarini, a company of which the Milanese architect was art director, signing successes such as the Lumiere lamp; and Giulio Cappellini, his university colleague and companion, in the seventies and eighties, of the very first working adventures.
Rodolfo Dordoni with his Lumiere lamp for Foscarini (photo Gianluca Vassallo). In the opening image he is with the light-sculpture Nile (photo Gianluca Vassallo-Francesco Mannironi)
Luca Zaniboni, partner of the Dordoni Architetti studio
«I met Rodolfo in 1998 and I joined his studio. In 2005, with the birth of Dordoni Architetti, he gave me and Alessandro Acerbi, who died prematurely in 2007, the possibility of becoming his partners, entrusting us with the department dedicated to architectural projects. My feelings towards him go far beyond gratitude for having offered me this opportunity to grow together; his teachings were the precious building blocks on which we built the history of our studio. It was a 25-year sharing journey based on mutual trust and esteem but, above all, on great empathy. Today I lost a great friend, and the thing I will miss most is, in reality, a very simple thing that has however marked our days: seeing him arrive in the morning and, passing by my desk, stopping there in front tapping his finger on the table and hear him say: “Lucio coffee?” (he affectionately called me Lucio), a prelude to our daily space-time of great confrontations ».
Rodolfo Dordoni in his studio (photo Ramak Fazel)
Renato and Roberto Minotti, co-CEO of the family business
Renato Minotti: «The news of Rodolfo’s passing has deeply shocked and saddened us. Over time, our strong, intense professional relationship based on mutual esteem and knowledge has turned into friendship and has allowed us to develop our work together to the fullest, translating it into the Minotti style. A lover of art and beauty, Rodolfo has been able to find the right balance between creative passion and rigor, to create with us a winning formula that has made our furnishings timeless classics».
Roberto Minotti: «We were lucky enough to work alongside a forward-looking, passionate, inspired man who was part of one of the most brilliant eras in the history of our brand. Today Minotti has lost one of his closest friends, a valuable collaborator, a true professional and a member of the family. We welcome the news of his passing with sorrow and wish to express our gratitude for his life, his work and for all that he passed on to us ».
Rodolfo Dordoni from Minotti
Carlo Urbinati, founder and president of Foscarini
«Dordoni has a very important place in the history and in the beginning of what has become Foscarini. I met him through Rudi von Wedel at the end of the 1980s, when I took over the company with Sandro Vecchiato. With his vision of him, he helped us build our identity as a contemporary brand. The synthesis of this change of course is Lumiere, from 1990, one of our bestsellers that has been produced for 33 years, with a hat that recalls our origins, that is, the Murano tradition, and a stamped metal tripod that projected us into the future. A project that opened us up to an industriality different from that of Murano, a viaticum towards what has become one of Foscarini’s most identifying traits, that is, our curiosity and our readiness to respond to design challenges with different technologies and materials. Lumiere was born perfect from Rodolfo’s pencil, you couldn’t improve it in any way. He designed it when he was redesigning our catalog and our logo, presented in 1990 at Euroluce, from which all our current image descended, which bears Rodolfo’s signature. His contribution is also that of having brought good young people into the company, including one who has become a master, Ferruccio Laviani, who designed his first product with us, the Orbital lamp, another masterpiece.
Orbital, and Foscarini changed trajectory 07 November 2022
Dordoni has never changed, he has always remained true to himself, to his integrity. When we switched to LEDs, he no longer wanted to tackle the lighting project, because he said he no longer felt free to let go of the pencil with a source that was no longer round, but flat, cold, which did not return the emotion and the heat of the traditional light bulb. Another masterpiece by him is Nile, designed in 2021, a lamp-sculpture whose silhouette is inspired by the bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, with a marble base and mouth-blown glass diffuser. A project that in my opinion collects a lot of Rodolfo: the formal refinement, the expressive power in the combination of two very different materials, the dynamism, with the base and the body inclined and opposed. Driving force and interpreter of what was happening in the world of design, with his calm and logical approach he was able to analyze the design sector, even if it served in a sharp way, without discounts for anyone, not even for himself. I will miss sitting with him, listening to his observations, his considerations after the Salone, his long-term forecasts, his indications on how to improve the present and look to the future, his immediate and natural lucidity, only he was capable of do these analyzes from within. Many have written these days that he was shy, that he was on the sidelines. In truth he was very joyful, but he didn’t care about being there always and anyway, to be seen. He has never transformed himself into a product, as many do, some even successfully. A person of great nobility of mind and bearing, understood as a way of being in the world. Enthusiastic about life, emotionally engaging, full of humor, he liked to dance, cook, he was a talent in the kitchen, so much so that he designed the most beautiful pots ».
Rodolfo Dordoni with his Lumiere lamp for Foscarini (photo Gianluca Vassallo). In the opening image he is with the light-sculpture Nile (photo Gianluca Vassallo-Francesco Mannironi)
Giulio Cappellini, architect, entrepreneur, talent scout
«Rodolfo and I met in the 1970s at the architecture faculty of the Milan Polytechnic, we happened upon the same working group, there was an immediate understanding and harmony of views. Piero Lissoni was also with us, we formed a trio, we spent a lot of time at the university bar, and many told us that we would never do anything good. In 1979, the day after his graduation, Rodolfo went to Cappellini, and for five years we worked as the company’s artistic director. We were very young, at the beginning of our career, together we designed products that have become design cults, such as the Aliante bookcase, the Cuba 25 sofas and sofa-beds and the Colombia storage units, which are still in production. Dordoni has always maintained an innate elegance, his objects and installations were never loud. This measure, later defined as “good Milanese design”, was his hallmark. The most beautiful installation done with Rodolfo was in 1987, when at the Poldi Pezzoli museum in Milan we presented the Shiro Kuramata collection, on the occasion of the Milan design week, when it still took place in September. I remember that we designed the installation in August, on the beach, with Patrizia Scarzella, Kuramata’s pieces were so strong that we decided to present them only immersed in an immaterial cloud of smoke, with a red laser indicating the path; success was immediate. In 1997, called by the Minotti family as art director, Dordoni did not propose a single piece of furniture, but introduced the concept of collection for the first time, as in fashion, anticipating the total look by 25 years. A coordinated project that was not cloying or repetitive, but that evolved, mixing different products together, a new way of understanding the home and of designing, not thinking about the single product, but creating domestic landscapes. His greatest lesson is professionalism: I also worked with Rodolfo years ago for Flaminia, for which he designed a series of bathroom fixtures, he personally checked all the prototypes, leaving nothing to chance. While maintaining his innate refinement, he has managed to make products of great commercial success, and this is also a great teaching. I will miss his profound humor: despite being measured, Rodolfo has always been very ironic; in this period last year we met in Sicily, in his house in Noto, and remembering fifty years of life we laughed and had a lot of fun. His irony, behind this aplomb, is something of Rodolfo that I will always carry with me ».
Rodolfo Dordoni: “Let’s not lose the bright emotions” by Manuela Mimosa Ravasio 05 September 2021
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