A perennial daredevil and womanizer, Carlo Mollino was also a master architect, furniture designer, photographer, writer, and racecar driver—a list of superlatives that stretches across the realms of art, design, and science. So it’s fitting that a new book dedicated to the Italian virtuoso’s passions, designed by Czech creative agency Okolo, isn’t limited to just ink on bound paper. More of a tribute to the blissfully hedonistic Renaissance man than a historical tome, the book showcases a series of laser-cut models of some of Mollino’s most storied projects.

Okolo’s book is a true labor of love: It includes a three-dimensional model of Mollino’s never-realized “House on the Hills” from Domus as well as the Reale Table—perhaps the mid-century Italian designer’s most enduring creation. “Mollino’s work and life includes furniture, airplanes, cars, skiing, women, photography—and it is all connected,” says Okolo’s Adam Štěch. “He was a very versatile man and his interests illustrate ours as well.”

The book doesn’t shy away from Mollino’s baser pursuits: his penchant to race cars, attempt risky aeronautical feats, and focus his lens on nude women. Alongside a model of the streamlined Bisiluro car he designed and raced at Le Mans in 1955, you’ll find a representative sample from his erotic series of Polaroids. “He was hedonist and we love it,” says Štěch.

The book is limited to a first edition of just 80 handmade volumes and coincides with a dedicated installation at the 3DH furniture showroom in Prague, which features one of Mollino’s original Cavour tables.

Images courtesy of Okolo.
Okolo
Okolo Mollino Book
3DH