The present group of works were designed by the architect Franco Albini as part of the furnishings for a Milanese residence. The project was featured in Domus, titled 'L'appartamento di un professionista', where the present pair of ‘Fiorenza’ armchairs and set of ‘Luisa’ armchairs were illustrated in situ in the dining room. Albini originally designed the ‘Fiorenza’ armchair for his own residence in 1940 and both this design and that of the ‘Luisa’ armchair demonstrate Albini’s continual experimentation with typologies within his design practice. Albini often created multiple versions of his furniture designs to respond to the specific requirements of a project and, in the case of the present two armchair designs, to eventually develop models for industrial production. An important figure of Italian Neo-Rationalism, Albini achieved a purity of expression in his work through formal reduction and the use of modular elements, as illustrated in the present bookcase. Albini designed the bookcase, desk with a pair of drawers and the cabinet a decade later when he returned to the private commission in Milan to refurbish the study. Both rigorous and elegant in their designs, Albini’s furnishings for the study are illustrative of his investigative approach through which he sought to create ‘essential’ forms that expressed a visual clarity.