In the history and criticism of Italian architecture since 1968, the practice of industrial design by architects after World War II has been viewed with a skepticism that is conditioned by a pessimistic view of the architect's and designer's role in capitalist economies. Yet in the early postwar years, in response to new possibilities of partnership between designers and industry, several architects undertook serious research into mass production as a resource for modern architecture as a social project, particularly for the redefinition of “home.” Appartamento Aperto is a study of one such architect, Marco Zanuso (1916–2001). By examining a single project, the apartment Zanuso designed for himself and his family between 1950 and 1967, the book explores the interdependence of design and architecture in Zanuso's practice and shows how he instrumentalized the object and the furniture plan as a means to bring an architectural agenda to domestic spaces.

Shantel Blakely, an architectural historian and architect, teaches history and design at Rice University’s School of Architecture. Her research focuses on architects who began to practice after World War II, who associated themselves with Modernism but whose practices adapted the discipline in fundamental ways, responding to social needs. Her main historiographic subject, Marco Zanuso (1916–2001), applied serial production techniques to architecture and object designs in postwar Italy. A second subject, the architect Charles E. Fleming (1937–2024), brought modern architecture to Black St. Louis at a moment when architectural modernism coincided with the emergence of a Black middle class and with the government's response to the Civil Rights Movement. Blakely has held teaching positions at Washington University in St. Louis and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and published numerous essays. Her research has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Getty Research Institute, and her home institutions.