Raul Barbieri

Raul Barbieri was born in Milan in 1946. An architect and designer, he is the name most closely tied to Rexite: he designed many of its best-known objects and became its art director.

He graduated in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1972. While still a student he worked in the industrial design department of Olivetti, led by Ettore Sottsass, where he contributed to the Valentine typewriter and met Giorgio Marianelli. In 1974 the two opened the Barbieri e Marianelli Architetti studio in Milan.

The objects for Rexite

When the two met it in 1977, Rexite was a precision-engineering subcontractor. Their first project together was the Safe Tray ashtray, conceived around what the company's machines could already do: the forms are simple, the perforated patterns are made with the workshop's own tools and the lid lifts off for cleaning. The Cooper Hewitt in New York holds an example from 1981, and sees in his work a sensibility close to Postmodernism and Pop Art.

Safe Tray grew into the Babele series, stackable desk accessories named after the biblical tower: pieces can be added or removed as needed.

Also from 1981 are Cribbio, a waste basket and floor ashtray made without welds from a single sheet of steel, and the 1060 Intervallo ashtray. Other objects designed with Marianelli include the Aiuto coat stand and the Contrattempo wall clock (1987), sold at the MoMA Design Store.

Independent work and teaching

Since 1989 he has worked independently, with a studio covering design, corporate identity and architecture. He has taught at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris and the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, and has coordinated the projects department of ADI, the Italian industrial design association.

His projects were selected for the Compasso d'Oro in 1989, 1991, 1995 and 1998. Other awards include SMAU Industrial Design (1981 and 1984), Design Plus in Frankfurt (1988, 1989, 1992 and 1993), Industrie Forum Design in Hanover (1992) and Good Design in Chicago (1999).