La serie Misura Domus, nr./no. 517

Superstudio

Abstract

First referred to as Le tombe degli architetti, Superstudio’s designs for the Istogrammi and subsequent Misura furniture series were conceived as countermeasures geared to undermine the market’s unending demands for new consumer products.

The earliest Istogrammi came in a number of shapes and varieties that together constituted a comprehensive set of household solutions for everyday living. The Istogrammi formed an assembly of stacked and gridded blocks, combining pure geometrical forms, towers, pyramid tops and other primary architectural shapes into an open number of possible configurations. These gridded blocks were what inspired Edoardo Boncinelli to suggest the name Istogrammi. Typically, histograms are geometrical representations of data, commonly used to track and display sound activity on audio equipment. In a sense, Superstudio’s Istogrammi perform a similar kind of action, responding to the individual user’s needs through fluctuations in its various geometrical shapes.