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Fondazione La Triennale di Milano - Archivio Paola Lanzani
Paola Lanzani (22 July 1933) graduated in architecture from Politecnico di Milano. Since 1961 she has practised her profession in Italy and abroad (Colombia, Germany, Morocco, Libya, Egypt), working in particular on designing public spaces for shops, chains of shops and department stores. She completely renewed their images by proposing new solutions for windows and signs, by designing the interiors and exteriors of outlets, from the study of passageways to the identification of various departments, to the precise study of the layout. She created modular display systems that went beyond the traditional artisanal approach for the first time in Italy and introduced the concepts of flexibility, efficiency and rationality. Project development also included light design and visual merchandising.
Her work on the la Rinascente Department Stores was considerably important: in 1966 she headed the Sales Promotion Service, where she planned window displays, promotions and events; in 1968 she was part of Corporate Image Coordination management, where she began the design of new modular sales equipment; from 1970 she was part of the Technical Service for la Rinascente operations management; from 1979 she headed the Planning and Consultancy Service, where she handled the renewal of the global image of the stores in Milan, Rome, Genoa, Cagliari, Turin, Naples and Catania. For the la Rinascente Group she designed the new image of Upim stores from 1978 to 1982. From 1974 to 1987 she reorganized all the Croff Centro Casa franchised outlets.
In 2008 she donated her professional archive to the Biblioteca del Progetto (Project Library) of the Fondazione La Triennale di Milano.
The selection presented here covers the period from 1971 to 1993 and concerns the work carried out by Paola Lanzani in numerous la Rinascente, Upim and Croff stores. It includes 779 drawings; 16 presentation albums of various projects; 99 photographic prints and negatives; 7 slide loaders; a bibliography composed of articles from various publications in addition to 2 brochures and a catalogue.
