Barbara Radice & Fragments of Terrazzo is the title of my thesis written in the course of my MA in Type Design at ecal. Terrazzo is a bi-annual magazine, published from 1988 to 1995, with a focus on architecture and design, with an accent on contemporary works in Italy and abroad.

It was edited in Milan by Barbara Radice and a small team; graphic designer Christoph Radl, editorial consultant Anna Wagner, photographer Santi Caleca and designer Ettore Sottsass. Barbara Radice was the spokeswoman of Memphis. The disciplines touched on span literature, poetry, history, science, philosophy, art and anthropology. I’m interested in the topics the magazine explored, and understanding how it reflected the design thinking at the time and the relationship it maintained to the Italian radical design movement that started in the 1960s. The first part of the mémoire explores Barbara Radice’s role as an art critic, editor and curator. The second part, built on the archive material found at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, in Paris, scans through the magazine, zooming in and out of the object, through a series of short essays : Terrazzo , a versatile name, Making-of, On colour, Curated ads, A bird’s eye view, On kitchens, On plans and Future ways of living.