Mezzadro Seat

Achille Castiglioni

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni

1957

A playful stool by Achille Castiglioni that mounts a red tractor seat onto a bent steel arm with a beech-wood foot, turning farm hardware into a functional, sculptural chair.

The glossy, perforated red seat seems to hover on a single swooping chrome support, the industrial holes and bright color set against a warm wooden foot that makes the object feel both rigged and refined.

Dating from 1957, it exemplifies postwar Italian design’s inventive reuse of everyday objects—mixing industrial materials and wit to create affordable, democratic furniture that blurred art and utility.

Palette

Art Terms

Design Industrial design Furnitureand interiors Found object Readymade Product design

Exhibitions

Prize Designs for Modern Furniture

1950

20th Century Design from the Museum Collection

1958

Thonet Furniture

1953

Recent Acquisitions, 1946–1953: Department of Architecture and Design

1953