George Nelson
(1908 - 1985)
An architect and a designer from the United States, Nelson started his work as an architect in Connecticut. He also worked in Italy for several years, where he stayed immediately after receiving his degree from Yale.
At this time he came in contact with many exponents of the “International Style”, which put the seal on his training.
The artist reached full artistic maturity in the post-war period. Following in-depth studies of prefabrication techniques he developed and built an experimental model house consisting of four square cells which could be assembled into different modules (1957). Important designs built, such as the American pavillions for the 1959 Moscow Exhibition (in collaboration with A. Dietz) and the New York “Fairchild House” (1961), are examples of this interest.
For 20 years Artistic decorator of an important American company, leader in the design field, he expressed himself in these terms: “Design is an essential component of our activity… it is up to you to decide what you want to produce, a market exists for a good design”.
At this stage Nelson was busy with research and experimentation relative to new technologies applied to furniture design. Thanks to collaboration with people such as Eames, Saarinen and Noguchi he performed important sudies on new technologies such as plywood folded tridimensionally and problems related to joining frames in metal tubing to plywood seats.
New plastic materials from the aircraft industry were used and, above all, a large number of experimental chair prototypes were made.
Nelson also worked as editor of th magazine “Architecture forum” but his creativity is expressed and ever inseparably joined to experimetal research and technological innovation in the design field. Nelson is one of the best known interpreters of modern tastes.