Luigi (Lutz) Colani
born 1928 Berlin, Germany
1946 | studied painting and sculpture at the Berlin College of Visual Arts |
1948 | studied aerodynamics in Paris; carried out futuristic studies for car and motorcycle magazines |
1952 - 53 | “high-speed” and material research for the Douglas aircraft company in California |
1954 | returned to Europe; received the Goldene Rose award for a Fiat car-body; worked for Alfa-Romeo, Lancia, VW, and BMW |
1972 | experimental design for Thyssen, Boeing, Rosenthal, Rockwell (NASA), Villeroy & Boch |
1973 | established a Colani Design Center in Japan |
1983 | moved to Japan |
1988 | professor emeritus at the University of Bremen |
1990 | architectural projects in Japan and Thailand |
1992 | first extensive Colani retrospective in Dortmund, Germany; previous exhibitions in Japan and Switzerland |
1993 | designed computer hardware for VOBIS |
1995 | opened a Colani Design Center in Lünen, Germany |
2003 | designs uniforms for the Hamburg police force; designs the airplane tt-62, designs the futuristic Speedster Shark vehicle |
2004 | speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos |
2005 | “Colani Back in Japan” exhibition at the Museum for Art and Design, Kyoto Institute of Technology |
2007 | collects “Grand Prix du Design” from the International Automobile Festival at the Grand Palais in Paris; FX Lifetime Contribution Award, London, and participates in the “Translating Nature” exhibition, Design Museum, London |
2008 | opens a design studio in Beihai, China |
Colani’s designs, which ranged from airplanes to furnishings and tableware, have helped popularize organic design. |