Mobile and melodious

Achille und Pier Giacomo Castiglioni: rr 126 Stereo System, 1965/66

Achille’s radio and turntable combination looks pretty large to us today because now we are able to play music in any room using just a mobile phone and an apple-sized Bluetooth speaker. But, over 50 years ago, most living rooms still had large, cupboard-like wooden music chests. Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni’s answer to those models was a piece of cheerful music furniture. Their stereo is lacquered in red or brown and fitted to a frame with castors so that it can be easily moved around the room. Brightly coloured furniture or things that had to do with space or robots were fashionable at the time. That’s why the Castiglioni brothers arranged the system’s slide controls and knobs in the form of a robot’s face. The unit is thus somewhat reminiscent of a friendly little figure on thin legs.