One of Italy’s most versatile and expressive architect designers from the second half of the twentieth century, Ettore Sottsass Jr. is internationally recognized for his significant artistic contributions. Inspired by Pop Art and Minimalism, in 1968 Sottsass began to use brightly colored plastic laminate—until then typically associated with kitchen and restaurant countertops—to surface his austere, monumental forms. Intent on creating a new furnishing type that read as both furniture and art, he covered the wardrobe units with plastic laminate on all sides so that they could stand in the middle of a room as totemic objects. Later he would call these works “superboxes” in reference to his existentialist belief that the minimalist forms could transcend mere function.