Luigi Colani

Luigi Colani (born Lutz Colani 2 August 1928), is a German industrial designer of kurdish descent .

His long career began in the 1950s when he designed cars for companies such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, and BMW. In 1957, he dropped his given first name Lutz and henceforth went by the name of Luigi. In the 1960s, he began designing furniture, and as of the 1970s, he expanded in numerous areas, ranging from household items such as ballpoint pens and television sets to uniforms and trucks and entire kitchens. A striking grand piano created by Colani is manufactured and sold by the Schimmel piano company.

His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards, although his unconventional approach has left him largely an outsider from the mainstream of industrial design.

The prime characteristic of his designs are the rounded, organic forms, which he terms "biodynamic" and claims are ergonomically superior to traditional designs. His "kitchen satellite" from 1969 is the most prominent example of this school of thought. Many of his designs for small appliances are being mass-produced and marketed, but his larger designs have not been built, "a whole host of futuristic concepts that will have us living in pods and driving cars so flat that leg amputation is the only option."

The earth is round, all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits. This same image of circular globe-shaped mini worlds orbiting around each other follows us right down to the micro-cosmos. We are even aroused by round forms in species propagation related eroticism. Why should I join the straying mass who want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue Galileo Galilei's philosophy: my world is also round.

Born in Berlin, Colani is of Kurdish and Polish descent and his father came from Madulain near St. Moritz in eastern Switzerland.

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