Drocco / Mello

Guido Drocco was born in San Benedetto Belbo, Cuneo, in 1942. He graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Turin and went on to work professionally in architecture and industrial design. In 1966, he became a lecturer in architectural design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Turin.

Franco Mello was born in Genoa in 1945. He lives and works in Turin and Spineto Scrivia. His practice spans design, packaging, graphic design, publishing, and art. He has contributed to art books, design catalogues, and posters for numerous artists and movements, ranging from Arte Povera to Transavanguardia, including Piero Manzoni, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Alberto Burri, Yves Klein, Bridget Riley, and Pinot Gallizio.

The collaboration between Guido Drocco and Franco Mello is among the most celebrated partnerships in modern furniture design. Their most famous creation, Cactus, is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate Modern in London, among other institutions. Blurring the boundaries between playful and functional, indoor and outdoor, and natural and artificial, Cactus emerged from the experimental design culture of the 1970s. Created for Gufram in 1972, it was produced using a groundbreaking self-hardening polyurethane foam. Its distinctive form and material have allowed it to transcend changing design trends, and the piece has been reissued over the decades in a variety of editions and finishes.