This mobile mini-kitchen includes two burners, a refrigerator, a cutting board, electrical outlets for small appliances, and multipurpose storage compartments. “Things have to be flexible,” said Colombo in 1966. “My kitchen can be moved around or out of a room and when you are finished with it, it closes up like a box.” This design represents in microcosm Colombo’s signature idea of the modern home: “The problem today is to offer furnishings that are basically autonomous, that are independent of their architectonic housing and so interchangeable and programmable that they can be adapted to every present and future spatial situation.” Colombo is known primarily for his use of new plastics and his creative approach to what he called the “total domestic environment.” His later career focused on “progressive living solutions,” and both his Rotoliving Unit (1969) and Total Functioning Unit (1971) were featured with this object in MoMA’s 1972 exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.
Gallery label from Shaping Modernity 1880–1980, March 28, 2012–September 8, 2013.