- GPA Guido Galet
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Biografy
Guido Galet was born in 1952 in the town of Sacile. Today, he still lives in Sacile and works between his home-town and the city of Milan.
Guido has been attracted to the world of craft and art from when he was a young guy. One of the significant episodes of his early works is during the 60's, when he injures a hand to make a lamp.
In 1970, he starts working as a designer in the furniture industry. In his works, he gets inspired by the design culture coming from Milan, important disclosureof this culture whwre the design magazines called Ottagono, Casabella, Domus and Casa Vogue. In this period, he starts developing his first design ideas and concepts. He works for both private clients and for the highly-developed serial production in the Nord-Est of Italy, introducing the new guidelines of the “Made in Italy” and the so-called “Good Design”.
In the same years, he starts studying Architecture at IUAV in Venice, from which he graduates in 1979. He attends courses of the renowned professors Carlo Scarpa, Gino Valle, Giuseppe Davanzo and Luciano Chirivi.
In 1976 he meets Aldo Businaro, the autoritative marketing manager of the furniture company Cassina, and offers him several projects. In 1978, in collaboration with Aldo Businaro, Guido Galet sets the basis for the realization of a new project in the city of Pordenone, a furniture showroom previously designed by the professor Carlo Scarpa. Unfortunately, the tragic death of the professor during his journey in Japan, will lead to dismissal of the interesting initiative.
In 1980, he opens his design studio and starts his activity focusing on architecture, internal design and visual communication. In the same year, he wins a national competition for the design of a chair, which will subsequently be produced by the company Bernini, based in Carate Brianza.
In 1980, he also participates in the international competition “Interieur 80” in the Belgian town of Kortrijk. He presents a new and absolutely innovative series of bathroom fixture. The distiguishing charactieristic of these fixtures is their cylindrical shapes, and the fact that they can be set up in the middle of a room, far from the walls. The fixtures were suggested in combination with the taps from the Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.
This concept will become popular after several years, both from a cultural and commercial point of view.
Thanks to the new technology developed by the company Bortoluzzi, in 1981 Guido Galet designs a wardrobe with two coplanar sliding doors. The product is developed for B&B ITALIA, and is a forerunner of a wardrobe type still successful today.
In the same year, he starts working in collaboration with some furniture companies from Milan. In particular, he works for MIM SPA, designing different home and office furniture, the showrooms in Rome, Milan, Paris, Bologna, Ferrara, Pordenone, as well as the new company offices in Sacile. In addition to this, after rigorous reserch and analysis of the original drawings, Guido Galet re-draws the “Carega” chair that Carlo Scarpa designed for the company in the ‘60s. MIM collections will be photographed by the renowned photographer Luciano Svegliado.
In 1983 Guido Galet collaborates with the famous architect Alessandro Mendini and the Studio Alchimia for a exibition at the international furniture fair “Salone del Mobile” in Milan. The presented work is a partition wall system for office spaces, which was also exhibited in the MIM showroom in Durini street in Milan. The event captures the media attention and is a great success.
Another important professional relationship is the one with Dino Gavina, for whom the architect designs a showroom in the town of Sacile. The showroom is set up to exhibit products from the company Simon International and the architect Eileene Gray, and contributes to the dissemination of the finest furniture collections in the area.
Guido Galet also collaborates with Paolo Fazioli, nowadays one of the most famous pianos instrument producer in Italy. The architect contribuites to the advertisement of the Fazioli pianos in different countries. An important milestone is the so-called “The Piano Concert”, an international exhibition organized in S. Marco square in Venice in 1985, which Guido Galet set up together with Paolo Fazioli and Bruno Tosi.
From the early ‘80s Guido Galet participates in architectural and design contests. His works are mainly private buildings projects, appreciated and published by several design magazines and specialized editions. Among these, the Ferrari showroom was selected among some of the best architecture works of the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia of those years.
Guido Galet meets the architect Marcello D’Olivo, admired since the ‘60s. In 1984, he designed the imposing Bevazzana bridge, planned by the engineer Silvano Zorzi. The bridge crosses the Tagliamento river and connects the two seaside resorts of Lignano and Bibione, situated in North-Adriatic coast of Italy.
In 1985, he promotes the cultural debate on architecture in Pordenone, asking the architect Boris Podrecca to join from Vienna, with whom he designs a hotel in the historic center of Sacile, close to Pordenone.
In the second half of the ‘80s, Guido Galet organizes an exhibition in the city of Padua, to promote the furnitures produced by the North-East Italian manufactoring industry. The exhibition is called “Triveneto Design”, and gets international attention. Thanks to this initiative and collaborating with different local furniture companies, he contributes to the design quality of the production and becomes of the most significant designers of the area.
Since 1984, Guido Galet is an active member of the Italian associations “Industrial Design Association” (ADI) and the “Bureau of European Design Associations” (BEDA). In 1994, he becomes the founding member and vice president of ADI in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
In 1997, the architect organizes a solo art exibition presented by the professors Stane Bernik from Ljubljana, Fabio Smotlak and Vittorio Sgarbi. In the same year, he designs the facade and the foyer of the theater Zancanaro in the town of Sacile.
Guido Galet continues his design activities in the following years, driving projects on furniture and lamps involving several employees and professionals. His works get noticed in various festivals and exhibitions, get reviewed in international magazines and are placed in prestigious locations, such as Fiat France offices in Paris.
