Strictly speaking, Italian Enzo Mari (1932-2020) was not an architect, but more a designer, graphic artist, poet, communication scientist and art theorist. Actually a real one homo universalis so. Mari opposed the mass production of furniture in the 70s of the last century and created a book entitled Autoprogettazione that tells how to make furniture from DIY structures. Mari thought there was already enough furniture on the market and did not necessarily want to make beautiful, but above all sustainable and affordable designs.

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A piece of wood

His designs for children became world famous. Here we highlight his work 16 Animali, an iconic modernist wooden puzzle designed to make sixteen different animal shapes with just one continuous cut, from a single piece of wood.

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Educational puzzle

He developed the work in collaboration with his wife Iela, who specialized in visual perception and communication with young children. While studying wooden toys from Scandinavia, Mari became fascinated by the idea of creating a menagerie of animals that are distinguished by a single line. He strived to create a design that would have maximum meaning with a minimum of components. In doing so, he drew inspiration from naturalistic forms and transformed them into symbols. The puzzle was first created in 1957 and became one of the best-known examples of educational design.