Piroscafo

Overview

Piroscafo is a bookcase by Aldo Rossi and Luca Meda, shown at the 1991 Salone del Mobile. Molteni&C's datasheet calls it a piece of architecture: a large facade with regularly spaced windows, inspired by the Regione Umbria headquarters in Perugia.

Construction

Structure and shelves are a veneered panel clad in eucalyptus, or paper-faced panel painted in Molteni shades. Shelves can be wood or 12 mm hardened glass, the frontal profiles and column are extruded aluminium with a semi-glossy enamel, and the glazed door has a steel-plate frame with 4 mm transparent glass.

Specifications

• LP/224/181: 181 cm wide, 50 cm deep, 224 cm on the vertical dimension line (not labelled on the drawing)

From a facade to a bookcase

Molteni&C's page tells the story as an afternoon walk: Luca Meda and Aldo Rossi stopped before the large green glass facade of the Fontivegge Centre in Perugia, next to the former Perugina chimney, and decided to turn the building's front into furniture.

1991 and after

Four large compositions were shown at the 1991 Salone del Mobile, two with a white facade and two in Prussian green. In 1993, on an idea of Luca Meda, a Piroscafo 13 metres long, with red and black funnels like a real ship, welcomed visitors to the Salone. The page says the success has now lasted thirty years, and the datasheet marks the anniversary with a facade lacquered in Spice and eucalyptus interiors.