In 1984, Italian architect, designer, and theorist Andrea Branzi, co-founder of Archizoom and member of Alchimia, collaborated with his wife Nicoletta Morozzi to design a series of clothing and furniture called Animali Domestici (meaning ‘pets’).1 They worked on the premise that in the future technological progress would make it possible to spend a large part of one’s life at home. The designs aimed to reflect the new significance of domestic culture and help improve individual living spaces. The series’ name is a metaphor for the special relationship between people and the objects around them. The legs and seats of the Animali Domestici furniture are industrial in appearance, with a simple, standardized, uniformly grey structure. Branzi took this standard base and added arm- and backrests made of sawn-up, untreated birch logs and branches. The natural material and the differing shapes of the wood make every single piece from the series a unique copy. The style of his hybrid objects was described by Branzi as neoprimitive, harking back to natural, traditional materials and forms while relying on the application of industrial manufacturing methods. It was a concept that placed him at odds with some of his contemporaries, as he rejected the idea of a global, uniform design in favour of highlighting the importance of using traditional, archetypal forms and materials in the design process. Branzi was inspired by rustic-style furniture from the nineteenth century; his designs, moreover, are reminiscent of Arte povera, an influential art movement in Italy dating from the mid-1960s whose adherents used everyday, inexpensive (‘poor’) materials in their art. The Animali Domestici series was designed for Zabro, a brand which furniture manufacturer Aurelio Zanotta, in conjunction with Alessandro Mendini and Studio Alchimia, established in 1984 and which existed until 1987. The Elfo sofa was later produced by Zanotta Edizioni, a limited-series special furniture collection.
