Born in Milan in 1930, Joe Colombo (Cesare Colombo) was one of the leading figures of Italian design in the 1960s. Trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, he initially pursued painting before turning decisively toward industrial design and interior architecture at the beginning of the decade.

Colombo embodied the forward-looking spirit of post-war Italy. His work explored new industrial materials—molded plastics, fiberglass, PVC—and proposed flexible, modular solutions adapted to the rapidly evolving lifestyle of the modern urban dweller. Rather than designing isolated objects, he conceived integrated living systems.

Among his most iconic creations are the Elda Chair (1963), with its enveloping fiberglass shell; the Tube Chair (1969), a modular seating system composed of cylindrical elements; and the Boby Trolley (1970), a highly functional storage unit that has become a design classic. He collaborated with major Italian manufacturers such as Kartell, Oluce, and Bieffeplast.

In the late 1960s, Colombo developed visionary projects such as the Total Furnishing Unit (1971), a compact, self-contained habitat integrating kitchen, sleeping, and storage functions within autonomous modules. This systemic and futuristic approach positioned him at the forefront of radical design and experimental thinking about domestic space.