Michael Arnoult

Michel Arnoult was a French-born designer who later became an adoptive Brazilian, and he is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the Ready-To-Assemble furniture (RTA) and flat-packaging. In the early 1950s, he arrived in Brazil and quickly made friends with some of the leading figures in modern architecture, such as Oscar Niemeyer and Cândido Portinari. At the time, there was a shortage of furniture suitable for the smaller spaces in social housing, which prompted Michel Arnoult to design simple but functional RTA furniture with his company Mobilia Contemporanea

His innovative and daring approach at the time proved incredibly successful, earning him several prestigious awards, including the Roberto Simonsen Prize for industrial design in 1964, and the Museo da Casa Brasileira Prize in 2003. His legacy continues to inspire designers to this day.