Progetti Compiuti

Shiro Kuramata conceived the Progetti Compiuti series across the 1970s, and the collection's name, Italian for "completed projects," signals his intention precisely: these were not experiments but resolved statements. Each piece within the series approaches storage as a formal proposition rather than a utilitarian object.

The series gathers four distinct works. Side 1 and Side 2 (1970) are two chests of drawers that share a family sensibility yet diverge in silhouette. PC_12 (1970) is the most arresting of the group: 49 asymmetrically arranged drawers mounted on wheels, a composition that presses against every conventional expectation of what a chest of drawers can be. Solaris (1977) introduces wood and metal in dialogue, its drawers finished to match the frame rather than contrast it.

All frames are constructed from black-stained ash. The drawers of Side 1, Side 2, and PC_12 are finished in white matte lacquer, creating a precise tonal opposition with the dark frame. Solaris maintains a monolithic continuity, frame and drawer surface unified in colour and finish.

Kuramata, one of the most singular voices in twentieth-century Japanese design, treated furniture as a medium for questioning spatial perception. His work for Cappellini endures as some of the clearest evidence of that sensibility.