Studio 65

Biography

Studio 65 is an Italian design collective founded in Turin in 1965, which emerged from a circle of young architects and designers centered around Franco Audrito and his fellow students at the Politecnico di Torino. The founding members included Roberto Gabetti, Aimaro Isola, Giorgio Ceretti, Pietro Derossi, and Riccardo Rosso.

Studio 65 formed against the backdrop of the profound social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s and is associated with the Radical Design movement. In a deliberate departure from the rationalism of postwar modernism, Studio 65 developed an experimental, often ironically fractured design language. From the outset, the studio questioned the normative principles of functionality and “good form” as understood in classical modernism. Instead, it deliberately drew upon the visual worlds of Pop Art, Surrealism, and the emerging consumer culture. Design was conceived as a medium of cultural reflection and social critique. This attitude manifests itself in objects that oscillate between art, architecture, and design and frequently employ humor and provocation.

Among the best-known designs is the 'Bocca' sofa (1970), whose iconic lip shape directly references the motif of sensual exaggeration in pop culture. The object can be read as an ironic commentary on consumer aesthetics and is at the same time an early example of the transformation of everyday objects into symbolically charged design icons. The same applies to the 'Capitello' armchair (1971), which references the form of an Ionic capital, thereby transforming classical architectural history into a playful, postmodern object. Both designs exemplify the dissolution of traditional genre boundaries and the shift toward a semiotically charged understanding of design.

From the mid-1970s onward, Studio 65 shifted part of its activities to the Middle East, where Franco Audrito, together with his partner Athena Sampaniotou, also realized extensive projects in the fields of interior design and architecture. Projects were carried out in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria. In the following decades, the studio expanded its international presence to markets such as Russia, China, and Indonesia.

Studio 65 continues to exist today and is regarded as a key protagonist of Italian Radical Design. Despite the playful and often spectacular formal language, the theoretical rigor of their work remains intact.