Cubo Radio, Brionvega
Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper

14 March 2014

The Cubo radio, model number TS502, designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper in the early sixties for Brionvega, has been a symbol of refined synthesis between sculptural aesthetics and functionality. The innovation lay in the way that its design focused not only on its appearance when in use, but also when turned off. The two cubes of which it is composed, in fact, pivot on the hinge like a bivalve, revealing the controls on the inside only when you want to turn it on. While not in use, the system can be closed to form a clean parallelepiped with rounded edges, whose continuity is not interrupted even by the aerial, which is retractable. A true icon of what has been dubbed the golden age of Italian design, a technologically updated version has recently been brought out by the manufacturer. It is available in three different models: TS522, the most faithful to the original, TS522D+, with Bluetooth, and TS525, which can connect to the internet.

La radio Cubo, progettata nei primi anni Sessanta da Marco Zanuso e Richard Sapper per Brionvega

Domitilla Dardi

Torn between the history of art and the history of architecture, she came across design at the end of the last century and has not let go of it since. She loves to deal with everything that entails the use of ingredients, their choice, mixing and transformation: from writing to cooking, from knitting to design, from perfumes to colors. She is curator for design at the MAXXI and professor of the History of Design at the IED.

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