The architect

Cerri graduated from the Polytechnic of Milan where he teaches at the Faculty of Architecture after having been, together with Umberto Eco, professor of semiotics. He is a founding member of Gregotti Associati with whom he worked until 1998, the year of birth of Cerri Associati.

His work

Between being and appearing B&B Italia has decided to show itself for what it is : an industry for design. Not common is the choice to display in the shop window at the Salone del Mobile in 1988 without proposing new products, but exposing its philosophy, its history and its technology. And he decides to do so thanks to those products that have made him a fortune over the years and that have characterised the image.

The spectator is obliged to pass through a dreamlike world rich in symbols, the result of the designer’s semiotic experience. On two inclined planes, technological elements and finished pre-cooked products meet, immersed in a surreal environment where fading reigns between mirrored walls and monitors that project images uninterruptedly. The decontextualized products, like the protagonists of a fashion show, assume an emblematic value. Reflected and multiplied, they emphasise the value of B&B design. The setting up of a piece of design history has been conceived not in self-celebrating terms, but as a permanent yard for the research of design as a stimulus for innovation.