What do you call a man who was a professor of Architecture at Turin University, photographer, writer, skier, inventor of engines and designer of race cars, acrobatic pilot and mountaineer? Carlo Mollino.
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I have to say that I’m not enamored of his exterior architecture designs — there’s way too much Gropius and not enough Athens, never mind art nouveau;
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…although not all the time:
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His interiors are a little too Scandi and not enough Edwardian:
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…although his Teatro Regio in Turin is incredible:
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…from the inside; the outside?
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…and of his furniture we will not speak.
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(Follow the link above for a full exposition of all these, and more.)
But how can you not enjoy his design of something as mundane as a bus?
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And then there was his Basiluro race car, which at Le Mans 1955 (yes, that Le Mans race) managed to reach 135mph with a 750cc engine (!) until it was forced off the track into a ditch by a Jaguar:
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However, it was Mollino’s photography which first caught my attention (guess why):
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And my favorite:
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His ultimate expression was this statement:
“Humans matter only insomuch as they contribute to a historic process; outside of history, humans are nothing.”
And Carlo Mollino sure left his mark on the historical process, in so many fields. Che uomo!