"Simplicity means subtracting the obvious and adding the significant" John Maeda

The term “minimalism” comes from the homonymous art movement from New York of the '60s and has given the geometric and platonic work of Robert Morris, Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt and many others. Most of these artists have drawn their inspiration from modernist design. 

One of the most famous artists of minimalist design, Donald Judd, has decorated his loft in  Manhattan with furniture of its creation, with essential shapes, reduced and simple, making it in raw plywood, linking it with classic pieces of pioneers of modernism such as Alvar Aalto, Thonet and Gerrit Rietveld.

Donald Judd’s Flat in Soho, Minimalist Artist 

Foto © Copyrights James Ewing; Judd Foundation

From this moment, the term minimalism is referred to each object or interior with drastically reduced forms. The minimalist interiors today are distinguished, in particular, by the choice of simple and purely functional design objects.

Currently, minimalism has been influenced and has influenced other movements in such way as to turn into  a versatile mix of styles sometimes in contradiction with one of its fundamental principles: the maintenance of simplicity of forms.

Minimalism represents the reduction to the essence. The famous motto "less is more" is born with  Mies Van Der Rohe and then becomes the slogan par excellence of the movement, so everything must be reduced to the basic elements, the fundamental ones, always keeping abreast of modernity.

Today we will talk about minimalism in all its splendor and in all its manifestations, but also we will share the experience of one of our designers with a metropolitan style and successful minimalist design: the architect Giuseppe Pio D'Altilia.

Regarding minimalist design, Arch. D'Altilia tells us that his relationship with industrial design began many years ago when he discovered the usefulness of the hole on the marble block of the ARCO lamp by the Castiglioni brothers. During his studies in Engineering and Architecture in the university, he had the opportunity to deal with topics such as the design of complex indoor and outdoor structures and dimensions much larger than those faced by the design of objects of furniture. That discovery lit something inside him, increasing love and interest and accompanying him by the hand in a world as defined by himself "totally new, for which I was not prepared for anything". For him, the idea of considering design furniture as miniature architecture was fundamental, thanks to which he began his experimentation process, designing and realizing his first prototypes of design objects.

His artistic approach certainly follows a metropolitan and minimalist style, however, very varied and heterogeneous because each design is not always repeatable. The design of steel structures, the focus topic of D'Altilia's training path, is totally different, for example, from design furnishings.

The LEGGERO table, his first product made with TrackDesign. The project was born from the specific need to impress and convince the company with a product of wide use and metropolitan style, that exalts the Corten at its best, playing on the challenge to get something light despite the high weight of the material.

However, he adds "the common aspect of all my projects is the desire to enhance the material by reducing and, if possible, eliminating the superfluous. It is my stylistic number. I find myself very much in the thought "LESS IS MORE", a mantra for lovers and fascinated designers with a predominantly minimalist and metropolitan style ". I think that a design object reaches full beauty when in its simplicity it manages to combine utility with formal and material balance. I cannot think of FOGLIA  chair made with another material for example. "

On the other hand, the design that led us to produce FRAC lamp is singular. The light helps to perceive the cleanest and tidy space, two of the main principles of the minimalist design. The object has been conceived starting from the draft realized in pencil, in one villa that the Arch. D'Altillia has custom-designed. As evidenced by "mistakes often arise the best ideas", the young designer from Puglia noted that minimalist and metropolitan projects are not just a simple and redundant aphorism but a reality. That very raw and amorphous configuration, in fact, allowed to develop the design of the FRAC lamp afterwards, based on a game of metaphors.

Frac | Corten Lamp– Arch. Giuseppe D'Altilia

Photo © Copyrights Cosimo Rubino 

With the right architecture and an appropriate interior, the Frac lamp, essential, with clear lines and captivating lighting, will be able to perfectly recreate that ambience and minimalism that the greats of the past talked about and that still today are the trend. For the construction of the FOGLIA chair, however, the path was "more mature”, as the production and processing technologies of TrackDesign  were more  familiar to him.

     Foglia | Corten chair

    Photo© Copyrights Cosimo Rubino 

The Apulian Architect  D’Altilia also added: "I wanted to create something" complex " through the various types of steel processing. In fact, starting from a sheet in Corten I worked as if it was a real origami. The particular of the texture on the back and on the sitting surface was born in order to create a game of contrasts also on apparently marginal aspects. The switching of the letter "a" instead of the letter "o" in the end of the word "Foglio" allowed me to obtain the final definition line of the product. "

For other minimalist inspirations, visit our online shop! The minimalist design is not suitable for all projects ... but it is certainly always useful to simplify!

We hope now to give you all the necessary elements at your disposal: are you ready to realize your new projects with an absolutely "minimal" style?