Metamobile

“Simon and Enzo Mari hereby authorise all those (with the exception of companies commercially manufacturing goods for sale) to assemble their own copies of the furniture presented here. With this design and nothing more than a hammer anyone can make this furniture …”
These are the words of the declaration made by Simon to present the Metamobile project, words advertising a totally new concept: the idea that people could assemble their own pieces of furniture for themselves, with designs being sent free of charge on request so that they could even make their own copies of the models: this was a true act of social levelling, … which proved a just answer to the accusations so often levelled at Gavina, that he had manufactured Marcel Breuer’s Wassily selling
it off the well-to-do, here instead was something “designed for the people”.
Not only did Metamobile offer a range of simple low cost furniture but it also represented something of a break-through in its distribution, going against traditional channels and selling directly to the public. As well as Enzo Mari, the collection, which also challenged the notion of design “superstars” of the sixties, also invited other
designers to take part, including Carlo Scarpa, Ignazio Gardella and Kazuhide Takahama…
Although this was a deliberately symbolic operation, Metamobile was no mere intellectual snobs’ game, but rather, it gave a concrete answer to real needs and was the starting point for a whole new set of civil values, in its opening manifesto it concluded: “True happiness is never having anything more than that which you truly need”.