Clizia Low Stool

A low stool designed with a cantilever seat supported by a central stand with sinuous and flowing lines, seemingly in contrast with the hardness and staticness of the stone it is made of. A carefully gauged construction, whose complexity evokes certain studies by Escher. The upper edge of the seat coincides with the lower edge so that the monolithic sections of “Clizia” stools are made out of the same block of marble in one single cut performed by numerically controlled machines, simultaneously creating two chairs, optimizing the material by reducing waste to a minimum. Clizia is now available in concrete, in addition to the original, marble version.

Mangiarotti’s links to Switzerland,  hark back to the 2nd World War. Given his political background, in 1943, just 22 years old and just a few exams into his architectural studies at the Milan Polytechnic, he crossed the Swiss border seeking asylum from the Mussolini regime. 

While in Switzerland, Mangiarotti meets Ernesto Nathan Rogers from BBPR, one of the first Italian architectural collectives placing teamwork above individuals. Through Rogers, he is introduced to Max Bill, who, in turn, invites him to teach at the IIT. In Chicago Mangiarotti has contacts with Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann, one of the fathers of prefabrication and mass production of architectural components. Both encounters had a huge influence on Angelo Mangiarotti’s work in the years to come.

He is offered to stay and teach abroad, yet he comes back to Milan and teams up with Bruno Morassutti. All of a sudden the pieces fall in place and in the same year of the renovation Club 44, two other architectural masterpieces see the light: the Mater Misericordiae Church in Baranzate and the Manzoni Apartment in Milan.