A Maverick Manifesto
Catalog Entry
Author: Luigi Colani
Title: Ylem
Date: c. 1971
Publisher: Edizione Internationale Colani + Bertelsmann Sachbuchverlag
Place of Publication: Gütersloch, Germany
Language: Text in German, Illustration captions in English, French, and German
Size: Case, 32 cm x 41 cm + 120; Sheets, color illustrations, 31 cm x 31 cm
Materials: plastic, paper, foam
Local Note: CHMRB copy 39088017216714 has the original red plastic portfolio.
Catalogue Source Nº: (OCoLC)ocn201537292
ISBN: 3570084272 – 9783570084274
Provenance: Purchased by the Cooper Hewitt from F. A. Bernett in 03/2013
Exhibitions:
• “Luigi Colani - Translating Nature,” Design Museum, London, 2007.
• “Luigi Colani - Back in Japan.” Museum for Art and Design, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan, 2005.
Ylem, Luigi Colani, 1971.
Ylem, Luigi Colani, Interior Plates.
Object Description
Ylem, a hybrid artifact with a Pop-Art appearance, is a portfolio composed of 120 loose prints contained in a carrying case. The portfolio could also be called a book or a box. The case is a shiny “Coca-Cola red” square plastic box with rounded corners, measuring approximately 12.4″ x 12.4″. It has an ergonomic carrying handle in the shape of an umbrella. When opened, the box splits into two equal parts. The box has a large silver letter “Y” screen-printed on both the front and back. Inserted inside the letter “Y” is the word “Ylem,” in the same shade of red and with a melting-style typeface.
The book-box contains 120 loose sheets, which are each about 12″ x 12″, printed front and back on thick glossy paper. The prints include illustrations of drafts, plans, and sketches, as well as photographs of Luigi Colani’s creations. There are eight colors utilized as background for the “boards” (white, green, purple, pink, fuchsia, turquoise, deep blue, and—for only one of them—red).
The index page follows the title page, subdividing the book into “Preface,” “Humankind,” “Life,” “Society,” “Communication,” “Architecture,” “Underwater,” “Transport and Traffic,” “Automobile,” and “Aviation.” At the beginning of each section, there is a text written by the author in German. Additionally, small notes are paired with each print in German, English, and French. The Preface and Humankind sections are dedicated to the author’s philosophy, which addresses themes of evolution, eroticism, sexuality, birth, and the Big Bang.
Luigi Colani’s designs and sketches cover a wide spectrum of topics and address future city life and housing, urban planning, travel speed and efficiency, nature-inspired and ergonomically-conceived designs, and extremely original possibilities for human dwelling in space or underwater.
Ylem plate example #1, “Future High-Speed Express.”
Ylem Plate Example #2, “Shelf City.”
Ylem Plate Example #3, “Inflatable Environment”
Ylem plate, “Giant extruder for tubular road construction.”
Ylem by Luigi Colani
At the beginning of the ’70s, during an eight-week stay in bed due to a back injury, Luigi Colani set himself to draw his philosophy and vision of the future. He completed two drawings per day, and the outcome was the Ylem manifesto.[1]
The title of the book, Ylem, refers to a term used in quantum physics coined during the 1940s. It is defined as: “the original matter from which the basic elements are said to have been formed following the explosion postulated in the Big Bang theory of cosmology.”[2]
Ylem, the book, is the result of characteristics proper to the designer’s philosophy, personality, and design practice, as well as the broader context of the time of its conception — the decade of the 1960s. Albrecht Bangert, in his book “Colani: The Art of Shaping the Future,” directly connects Ylem’s to Colani’s style and the style of the 1960s: “Luigi Colani . . . gave free reign to his radical intellectual approach, his style, and pathos in a large-scale manifesto printed in Pop Art colors reminiscent of Warhol.”[3]
The carrying case and its 120 plates are a direct byproduct of the revolutionary period of the 1960s. The book, as an artifact with its bright color, its plastic material construction, its ergonomic shape and handle, its alternative interpretation of a book, its inventive design, and its psychedelia-inspired typeface, all fit squarely within design trends of the time. Additionally, the content of Ylem is a remarkable exercise in foresight. Like the Radical Utopian architects of that era, with whom the designer felt a keen affinity, Colani proposes futuristic solutions that are a manifestation of the Space Age and of his vision. As the designer stated, he was interested in “changing social, economic and ecological conditions on Earth through technological progress and design.”[4] The nature of the content of the portfolio stems from his strong visions and opinions about the design field, his systemic method of nature-inspired design, his scientific knowledge, and his natural capacity to make futuristic proposals.
Luigi Colani’s work has always been informed by his background as a sculptor, his interest in ergonomics, and nature. He does not consider himself a designer. He says: “I consider myself a 3-D philosopher. I am not a designer at all. I studied aerodynamics, I studied philosophy, I studied sculpture. High technology on one side, and on the other side, art.”[5]
Colani was born in Berlin in 1928, and died in Karlsruhe, Germany in September, 2019. As a designer, his training was unorthodox. He first studied sculpture and painting at the Berlin Kunst Akademie, and then in 1947, philosophy and aerodynamics at the Sorbonne in Paris, until 1952.
Since his insertion into the world of industrial and product design, Luigi Colani developed a unique approach to his creative process. This approach first became apparent in work he did for the automobile industry in the US and France mixing his scientific-technological knowledge with innovation, notably creating the first car bodywork in plastic.[6]
From 1954, Luigi Colani added a central component to his professional practice that would be at the core of everything he did ever since. He developed his distinctive organic vocabulary of forms, which he called “bio-design.” “Bio-design” is elucidated by Colani’s proclamation that everything in the micro-cosmos and macro-cosmos is shaped out of curves. Although bio-design had numerous precedents prior to the 1970s, Colani was a pioneer in devising a systemic organic design process. He efficiently adapted natural forms into object-making—in their appearance, structure, and functioning. In doing so, he always addressed, first, an object’s functionality and then, second, its aesthetics. In addition, Colani’s design process locates the user at the center of his universe, considering her body as pivotal for his offerings, which he believed should always be conceived as accommodating the body and not the other way around.[7]
Between 1953 and 1954 he lived in both California and France, but after that period he returned to Berlin. Then, in 1970, he established his “Design Factory” in Central West Germany in order to develop a more independent professional practice. It was under this new model of working that he brought to life a vast collection of innovative shapes and revolutionary solutions, designing an array of products for many prominent product, automobile, and aviation companies. Out of frustration with the German industry, he left his country again to live in Japan from 1982 until 1987. In 1995 he became a professor at Tong-Ji University in Shanghai, China. In 2002 he established his latest studio, which was based in Karlsruhe, Germany, where he worked until he died.
In a career that spans more than 60 years, Colani produced an extensive body of work that included creating alternative futuristic concepts for transportation, architecture, furniture, industrial objects, electronics, and more. Around 5,000 product designs are attributed to him. He was most notable in automobile, aircraft and aeronautic design. His special dedication to transportation design was focused into devising forms with little resistance to the flow of air or water, increasing speed and ease of movement, while minimizing fuel consumption. According to Pernodet and Mehly, by the end of the ’60s and beginning of the ’70s, Colani was the only automobile designer talking about aerodynamics and dedicating himself to translating aeronautic aero-dynamism into the automobile world. He developed countless prototypes in this area, most of which were never realized.
During the ’60s, designers were continually searching for a new aesthetic that was rebellious and satirical, and in which products were mass-produced and more short-lived. Colani’s manifesto was conceived against this historical background, and as an object, it is typical of the aesthetics of its time. In the ’60s, an explosion of bright colors became the norm, and synthetic materials, especially plastic, became the material of choice in all kinds of industrial design productions. Ergonomic and organic shapes were applied to a wide variety of products (such as furniture, lighting, household items, electronics, and more), often in unconventional and surprising ways. Inventiveness and unorthodox interpretations were applied to many objects, producing inflatable, stackable, sculptural pieces, many times challenging the traditional use of objects. This decade saw the creation of inflatable furniture,[8] furniture that bounced into life when removed from its packaging,[9] modular furniture that did not look like modular but still functioned as such,[10] and stackable light fixtures.[11]
Gionatan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi & Carla Scolari, Blow chair, designed in 1967 is the first inflatable chair.
Verner Panton, Pantower, designed in 1970 is an unconventional sofa.
Gaetano Pesce, Up Series, designed in 1969, bounces into life when unwrapped.
Joe Colombo, KD27 Table Top Lamp, designed in 1964, was conceived as a stackable lamp that could also be used as a floor lamp.
The prints in Ylem manifest key concerns of the Space Age, especially in sketches that describe human dwellings, urban design, and fast transportation. The Space Age, a period generally defined as beginning with the launching of Sputnik in 1957 until the landing on the moon in 1968, touched the conscience of every human being on the planet. Two cultural touchstones were symptomatic of how profoundly our human concepts of space and time were then being transformed and expanded. In 1967 Buckminster Fuller published a small book called “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” which related Earth to a spaceship with finite resources flying through space with the Sun as its source of energy. And in 1968 Stanley Kubrick released the science fiction film “2001: Space Odyssey,” which dealt with issues of human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. Both cultural examples were imprinted in the conscience of most contemporaries of that time.
In response to space exploration, designers began generating futuristic designs. Multiple social and political events of the era (the nuclear crisis, social unrest, world population growth, and projections), deepened humanity’s concerns and visions regarding the future. In the field of architecture, a group of young practitioners from Florence (Superstudio and Zziggurat, Archizoom, and UFO) and London (Archigram) developed a movement called “Radical Utopias.” Most of their projects were unrealized, but they found ardent collaborators within the design and architecture magazine circles quickly making them influential in their field. Their postulates were radical and critical, and their projects were mostly uninhabitable (i.e.: “The Walking City” by Archigram.) Their strategy for criticism came through sarcasm and the presentation of amusing but impossible solutions to humanity’s troubles. These practitioners were concerned about what was to come, and many of their utopian projects involved the city, city planning, and future life on Earth. Notably, generally all the projects created by this movement were disseminated through independent print media, making use of new low-cost printing technologies, a central way through which they established a dialog with their counterparts. Colani’s effort to assemble his visions in his Ylem book might also stem from the same motivation. The underlying mission of the manifesto is to communicate the designer’s overarching view of the broader context of society at that time.
Colani identified with the ideas of this group of architects when he said: “Like Archigram—and wonderful crazy people like us there are—we try to slip the chains of time and counter the terrible arch-conservative attitude of industry and the world around.”[12] In Ylem, Colani outlines a critical view of the world and the consequences of industrialization. While the Radical Architects proposed utopian and unrealizable projects paradoxically mocking their own idealism, Colani’s schemes are pragmatic approaches to solutions that exude futuristic inspiration. The collection contains some remarkable thoughts about mobility, which is not surprising given the fact that Colani had dedicated his time to thinking about how through scientific knowledge efficiency could be applied to all means of transportation.
In terms of technology and engineering, Colani’s designs were often deemed too radical and forward-looking. Furthermore, he was a strong-minded designer with firm opinions, which were very often expressed unfiltered through the press. This created a wave of opposition from the industry and misunderstanding from others around him. His unrestrained criticism of the industry (especially the automobile industry), his antagonistic public image and his uncompromised attitude earned him a reputation as the “terrorist of design,” a fact which many times marginalized him and often kept him from more productive business opportunities.[13] Most of his criticisms were directed toward the executives and engineers of the car industry, who he considered too traditional for his taste. The issue of contention was always the same: his designs were too forward-looking at a time when the consensus among the executive elite was that the public was not ready for such a leap forward. Nevertheless, as decades have passed, little by little, he has been recognized as a visionary in the field.
Ylem as an object relates to what was going on in industrial and product design during the ’60s (the red color of the case, the unusual book format used). At the same time Colani’s futuristic proposals are as critical of society as his contemporaries in the Radical Utopia movement are, even if they lack that movement’s sarcastic, abstract, and sometimes humorous approach. Indeed, Colani’s designs in Ylem have a serious undertone that most of the other practitioners’ projects lack. Additionally, his projects are informed by his specialized scientific and technical knowledge in aerodynamics, which makes, in some cases, the realization of his projects a real possibility. This fact made his schemes more grounded in the physical world than those of his counterparts.
As a designer, Luigi Colani was extraordinarily prolific and highly innovative. He exercised his practice with unrestrained passion in a period in which important questions about humanity’s place on Earth were beginning to arise. Ylem as a design manifesto is a compilation of the vision and philosophy of a designer determined to explain his views and his analysis of a society, offering solutions to the future of humankind. The designer’s four fundamental axes converge into this remarkable portfolio: his strong vision, his nature-inspired designs, his scientific and technological knowledge, and his futuristic foresight.
Ylem plate, “Giant Astrodom.”
Ylem plate, “Hypersonic Caret Wing.”
Ylem plate, “Oxygen Propelled Robot Harvesting.”
YLEM plate, “URBI: Transition from Road to Rail, Connected to City Traffic.”
Notes
[1] Albrecht Bangert, Colani: The Art Of Shaping The Future (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 72.
[2] Bangert, Colani, 71.
[3] Bangert, Colani, 71.
[4] Bangert, Colani, 63.
[5] David Colman, “Luigi Colani,” Interview Magazine, July 7, 2009. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/luigi-colani.
[6] Bangert, Colani, 13-18; Between 1952 and 1953 Luigi Colani was employed by Douglas Aircraft Company in California for work in high-speed research as an aerodynamic and plastic expert. In 1953 he returned to France to work for SIMCA, the automobile manufacturer, where he created the first entirely plastic car body. Since then plastic has played a crucial role in his designs.
[7] Philippe Pernodet and Bruce Mehly, Luigi Colani (Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 2000), 12.
[8] Gionatan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi & Carla Scolari, Blow chair, designed in 1967 is the first inflatable chair.
[9] Gaetano Pesce, Up Series, designed in 1969, bounces into life when unwrapped.
[10] Verner Panton, Pantower, designed in 1970 is an unconventional sofa.
[11] Joe Colombo, KD27 Table Top Lamp, designed in 1964, was conceived as a stackable lamp that could also be used as a floor lamp.
[12] Bangert, Colani 72.
[13] Pernodet and Mehly, Luigi Colani, 14.
Bibliography
Bangert, Albrecht. Colani: The Art Of Shaping The Future. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.
Fujimoto, Akira. Luigi Colani: Designing Tomorrow. Japan: San’ei Shobo Publishing Co., 1978.
Pernodet, Philippe and Bruce Mehly. Luigi Colani. Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 2000.
