POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Lido' couch made by Memphis

Object No. 86/1013

Playful, colourful, childlike and a bit uncomfortable, the 'Lido' lounge was designed by Michele de Lucchi for Memphis in 1982. An Italian design collaborative founded by Ettore Sottsass, Memphis was known for their overt anti-modernist designs, which employed unconventional shapes, materials, colours and patterns. Initially dubbed 'The New Design', the Memphis name was formed after Bob Dylan's 1966 song 'Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again'. They liked the Memphis name for its manifold references to blues, Tennessee, Rock n' Roll, American suburbs and the capital of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. True to Memphis form, the 'Lido' lounge was not designed to be especially practical or inviting. In fact, its design was more intended for someone 'on-the-go' with its firm, woollen padded upholstery and short seat. This feeling is also evoked by the name (ironically, a lido refers to a public outdoor swimming pool, or a place to relax) and the juxtaposition of non-traditional with traditional materials, including printed plastic laminates with lacquered wood and metal. Plastic laminates, in particular, were a new innovation for furniture design from the Memphis group. Normally a material considered "vulgar" and of "bad taste", Memphis brought plastic laminates out of take-away restaurants and milk-bars and into peoples' living rooms, breaking all barriers with the notion of 'acceptable design'. The 'Lido' lounge also represents the Memphis group's progressive thinking by using colour for the sake of colour. Previously, colour had been used as a denoting feature for a chair's structure (for example, Gerrit Rietveld's 'Red and Blue Chair' of 1917-1918) (85/1835) - but here, de Lucchi has combined bold colours with patterns to appeal to a much more youthful and style-conscious market. Melanie Pitkin Assistant Curator, Design and Society July 2010