Grace Lees-Maffei - Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design

Is this car Italian, Russian or Cuban? A Lada 1200sa Russian modifi cation of the 1966 Fiat 124on the streets of Havana, Cuba, where it is a staple of everyday life

Transculturation in transit: mod-ifi ed Lambrettas and Vespas on the streets of Brighton, United Kingdom

An Italian design icon by a Japanese designer: the 1977 Baby Gaggia domestic espresso machine designed by Makio Hasuike

A futurist foray into industrial design: in 1932 Fortunato Depero designed the characteristic Campari Soda bottle still used today

Bourgeois modernism by the letter: the 1935 Olivetti Studio 42 xtypewriter designed by Aleksander Schawinsky, Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini

The oil company AGIP was one of many enterprises controlled by the Italian state through the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale). AGIP became an important design commissioner with high visibility in Italian material culture, for example through its ubiquitous gas stations

The times they are a-changing: the installation Il Caleidoscopio by Vittorio Gregotti, Giotto Stoppino and Lodovico Meneghetti, projecting film montage by Peppo Brivio on the theme of leisure and labour on tilted mirror walls at the XIII Triennale di Milano, 1964

Antidesign goes mainstream: advertisement for the 1968 Zanotta Sacco beanbag designed by Piero Gatti, Franco Teodoro and Cesare Paolini

Fiat Panda police car in Olbia, Sicily, March 31, 2009

The Daily African advertisement, Diesel For Successful Living campaign, 2000

Patricia Urquiola, Foliage sofa and Jelly vessels

Superstudio, Quaderna tables for Zanotta, 1971

Ettore Sottsass, a sketch for his India-inspired Ceramics to Shiva, 1964

Ettore Sottsass posing in front of Beverley, a cupboard/shelving system designed for Memphis, 1981

Roberto Mango in New York City, c. 1951

Advertising sheet for String Chair, designed by Roberto Mango for Allan Gould Inc.

Cover by Roberto Mango for the November 1954 issue of Interiors, dedicated to the Triennale di Milano

Two pages from Roberto Mangos photographic album documenting the construction of the cardboard domes at the 1954 Triennale di Milano

Four views of Roberto Mangos experimental cardboard chair designs for Italcarton, 1968

Italian designers at Ulm

Toms Maldonado and Ettore Sottsass at Ulm, working on the Tekne 3 model, 1960

Toms Maldonado observing a typist testing the keyboard of the Tekne 3 model, Ulm, 1960

Models of the keyboard of the Tekne 3, Ulm, 1960

Models of the keys of the Tekne 3, Ulm, 1960

Sign system for the Elea 9003 Olivetti mainframe computer

Logos for diff erent types of merchandise, from the Upim Corporate Identity Manual

Model presenting a synthesis of all the applicable regulations, from the Upim Corporate Identity Manual

Invitation for the inauguration of lUniversit delle Arti Decorative (the University of the Decorative Arts) in Monza, designed by the Scuola del Libro students, 1922

Marcello Nizzoli, poster for the Th ird Biennial of Decorative Arts in Monza, 1927

Tommaso Buzzi, drawing plans for a double-sided desk-bookcase

Classroom of pottery decoration, Istituto Superiore di Industrie Artistiche (ISIA), fi rst half of the 1930s

Project for Securit crystal furniture, 3rd Student Competition Award

Display stand of the Scuola del Libro exhibiting students work at the V Triennale di Milano in Milan, 1933

(A) Total Italian ceramic exports to the United States and other countries between 1938 and 1953, by weight. (B) Italys majolica exports to the United States and other countries between 1949 and 1958, by monetary value

Cover page of the catalogue Handicrafts of Italy

Pages 42 and 43 of the Italian Ceramics catalogue, c. 1954

Gio Ponti and Nino Zoncada, Conte Grande, central staircase leading down to the first-class dining hall, detail showing caryatid in majolica by Fausto Melotti, c. 1949

Gio Ponti and Nino Zoncada, Giulio Cesare, first-class saloon with a showcase featuring glass works by Paolo Venini; ceramics by Guido Gambone, Pietro Melandri, Fausto Melotti and Luigi Zortea; and objects in enamel by Paolo De Poli, c. 1948

Superstudio, Encampment collage from their Life without Objects environment

Gruppo 9999, extract from their Vegetable Garden House collage

Gruppo 9999, prototype of Vegetable Garden House at Space Electronic nightclub, Florence, c. 1972

Drawing by Alessandro Poli of the homestead of the Tuscan peasant farmer Zeno Fiaschi for research into a self-sufficient culture, 19791980

Photograph taken by Alessandro Poli of Zeno Fiaschi in his house in Riparbello

Giuseppe De Finetti, Bottega di Poesia gallery, Milan, 1923: library room

Pietro Lingeri, Il Milione gallery, Milan: entrance and interior photomontage in a gallery advertisement (detail)

Carlo Scarpa, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, 1942: interior sketches

Camillo Magni and Aldo Cerchai, Galleria Blu, Milan: interior (second exhibition room)

Alberto Salvati and Ambrogio Tresoldi, Galleria Vismara, Milan, 1974: ceiling (detail)

I Padiglioni Italiani alla Mostra della Stampa di Colonia e di Barcelona

I Padiglioni Italiani alla Mostra della Stampa di Colonia e di Barcelona

Two views of Sala O from the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, 1932

Mosaico di Mario Sironi

Centrality of the user experience in a diagram designed by Bob Noorda to illustrate some innovative solutions for the Metropolitana di Milano Linea 1

Visual metaphor: the bright red handrail designed by Bob Noorda leads commuters from the street into the underground station and also symbolises the network itself

An environmental model designed by Albe Steiner and his students to recreate the user experience and showcase their work for the Urbino municipality in 1969

Massimo Dolcini, Lets Open the City, 69 by 99 centimetres (26 by 39 inches), serigraphy, 1985

Confronting entropy head-on: some of the posters designed by A G Fronzoni for the city of Genoa

An Alfa Romeo 8C, with body design by Carrozzeria Touring, at the 2006 Mille Miglia

An Italian soldier and his Fiat Topolino, first half of the 1940s

An Isetta (BMW version) at the 2006 Mille Miglia

A boy playing with a Fiat Nuova 500, 1975

Crowd admiring a Ferrari in Florence (Piazza della Signoria, 2006 Mille Miglia)

La Pavoni Ideale, first manufactured in 1905; this model with a luxury finish is from circa 1910

La Pavoni D.P. 47, 1947, designed by Gio Ponti

Gaggia Classica, 1948