Zanotta - Achille Castiglioni - Mezzadro - Stool - Beech

The Mezzadro stool is an icon of Italian design, created in the late 1950s by the Castiglioni brothers. It is based on the idea of building furniture from whatever means are at hand. The piece, which today is included in all design history manuals, is assembled from an old early-20th-century tractor seat, a leg shaped like a curved iron bar, and a wooden support resembling the handle of a corkscrew.
The seat is metal, stamped and painted. The bent iron leg to which it is attached serves as a damper in the tractor, but here it has the opposite function, and acts as a spring for the seat. The prototype was produced by Isa and was first shown at the XI Triennale in 1957. Since 1970, it has been produced by the Zanotta factory.