Carlo Ratti's Objectify series explores the Vibram sole as Italian design icon

Architect Carlo Ratti launches a summer series for Wallpaper* titled 'Objectify', examining ordinary Italian objects that define daily life. The fourth installment focuses on the Vibram sole, a vulcanised rubber tread invented by Milanese mountaineer Vitale Bramani after a 1935 climbing tragedy on Punta Rasica killed six climbers due to frozen leather soles. Bramani, inspired by a Pirelli tyre and the floors of Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, patented the sole under the contraction of his name. The company remains family-owned in Albizzate, Varese, with a Milan lab designed by Ratti's firm. The sole's range expanded from mountaineering to the FiveFingers glove-shoe, separating toes for a barefoot feel. Today, Vibram soles are used by everyone from hipsters to the United States Marines, making it a ubiquitous yet unseen Italian design object. Ratti's series aims to highlight overlooked items like mosquito coils and condoms as design masterpieces, following a weekly column in Il Sole 24 Ore. Ratti directs the Senseable City Lab at MIT and recently curated the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.