Matrix International

A repertoire of projects, gathered in the collection of historical design reproductions edited by Matrix International, outlines a long vicissitude that slowly sees the assertion of the industrial product.

The narrative begins with the Shakers’ experience, the American communitarian group who anticipated, with its own manufacturing, the furnishings’ mass production; then introduces some key figures in the development of “modern style” and analyses the projects of interior designers whose job has concurred to change the public’s taste.

The description goes through the experiments lead by the masters of the Bauhaus, shows the designs of the leaders of the “Esprit Nouveau”, and illustrates the contribution of some designers who carried to maturity the topics of their research. The history of “modern furniture” is described by the products which became its emblems.

The book is organized on a chronological criterion, with chapters dedicated to every single author. The main target of the book is the emphasizing of the ‘matrix’ still ruling contemporary design.

When looking for a title for this book, which had to make clear the difference between the re-editions collected in “The Matrix Of Contemporary Design” and the new projects produced from 1997, the word “Temp” seemed the more appropriate.

Then we realized that using this term, originally coined for identifying temporary data, could give place to misunderstandings: like matching the “fickleness” of the contemporary product to the “continuity” of the modern furniture. This term also put in a second plane some of the requirements of this work; particularly the idea to join some distinct and recognizable products to the projects of the masters.

The job in fact was carried out starting from the technologies and the materials used for the re-editions and had as main theme the search of the planning topics that characterized the “heroic” period of the design. The necessity to find a balance between identity (innovation) and continuity (tradition) is typical of those companies which produce “modern” and contemporary products and where it also prevails the tendency to separate the two productions.

In other cases, instead, the production lines are introduced like an unicum, in which various authors and products are compared. Matrix’s choice is to offer an exact interpretation of its collection, where the new projects represent the occasions of a new interpretation of  the modern “matrix”.