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The poplar is a tree that is characteristic to river banks and wetlands, producing soft white, almost knot-free wood, which needs to be felled before autumn in order to preserve its whiteness and flexibility.
Using this highly abundant, popular material, pioneering designer Ferrán Freixa designed an unusual shade with an oriental, virtually Zen style, built using thin vertical strips attached to a small, circular metal rod structure. His lamp was the first winner of the Golden Delta ADI-FAD award for the best industrial design produced in Spain back in 1961.
Ferran Freixa Jové
Born on 20 October 1922 in Menarguens (Lleida).
In 1947 he took a surveying course in Barcelona.
He began teaching drawing at the Municipal Vocational Training School of Barcelona in 1950.
He worked on many projects with architects including Martinell, Bonet Garí, Bonet-Armengol, Sostres and others.
In 1959 he created Best-Form to edit Bonet, Kurchan and Ferrari-Hardoy's famous BKF iron and leather armchair (1939) in Spain, as well as his own designs.
In 1961 he won the first Gold Delta awarded by ADI-FAD for the N-4 lamp in the Nagoya series, which was followed in 1962 with the Silver Delta for one of his wall lamps.
Freixa joined ADI-FAD in December 1967 as a design partner.
In 1968, he became a member of the board as the treasurer and took part in planning and running the ICSID congress in Ibiza. He remained a member of the ADI-FAD governing boards until 1975.
In 1969 he created a modular furniture programme called Format 22, which was selected by ADI-FAD.
This modelling programme and other products by his company later become part of the firm Galo-Ben in Barcelona.
In 1972 FAD commissioned him to design and build an inflatable pavilion to house the work of the various groups that belonged to FAD.
He founded the Centre de Disseny de Barcelona (BCD) in 1973 with the designers Casablancas, Blanc, Carreras, Prats and Bertran.
In 1974 he founded the company ACORD S.A., which made and designed furniture such as the Expo 35 material, the Tejano programme edited by Grassoler S.A. and the Minor 10 Series which won the ADI-FAD Golden Delta in 1974.
During the 1980s he worked with Antoni de Moragas on restoring a number of monuments that had been taken down at the end of the Spanish Civil War, including the monument to Rafael Casanovas, the monument to Francesc Layret and the monument to Doctor Robert.
In 1997 he set up Produccions Estudi Freixa and designed and produced the Prisma lamp collection, which earned him the 1997 ADI-FAD Silver Delta.
From 1998 onwards he continued to develop and promote the Prisma lamp collection.
Ferrán Freixa passed away in Barcelona on 19 September 2008.
Santa & Cole is an editing company from Barcelona that lives for industrial design.