Biography

Franca Stagi, born in Modena in 1937, graduated with a degree in architecture from the Politecnico in Milan in 1962. From 1963 to 1983, she ran an architecture and design studio in Modena together with architect Cesare Leonardi, where they created a number of innovative furniture designs. Her best-known architectural projects include parks and cemeteries as well as restorations of churches and synagogues in and around Modena.

One of the creative duo’s best-known designs is the “Dondolo” rocking lounger. It is the result of material experiments with fiberglass-reinforced polyester. Stagi and Leonardi developed a process to produce organically shaped furniture pieces with a sophisticated artistic character. The “Dondolo” lounger seems to float in space like a curved ribbon. It consists of a thin, double-walled panel made of fiberglass-reinforced polyester with a ribbed structure and two side rails. Its weight and center of gravity are so precisely balanced that it remains stable even when in use. The lounger was patented in 1969 and presented in 1972 at the exhibition “Italy. The New Domestic Landscape” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Previously, Stagi and Leonardi had already collaborated on the “Ribbon Chair,” whose seat also consists of a fiberglass-reinforced polyester shell.

Another impressive project is their publication “Archittura degli Alberi,” which first appeared in 1982—a compendium for landscape architects featuring hundreds of meticulously executed drawings that portray around 200 tree species, showing them with foliage, without foliage, and also their fruits, leaves, or needles in detailed views.

In 1983, Franca Stagi and Cesare Leonardi went their separate ways. Stagi died in 2008 in her hometown of Modena, where she realized many architectural projects.

Objects by Franca Stagi