Radical Design

Radical design was a simply the form of Anti-Design which had emerged in Italy. Rather than designers most of the creators of these designs were design groups such as Superstudio Archizoom and Gruppo Strum. They sought to destroy the ideals of the modern movements such as functionalism.

It drew inspiration from the plastic and cartoonish designs of Pop Design. They questioned the function of every product and, while they did leave some functionality, they distorted it and came up with new ideas and got to a point where it no longer put functionality first and in some cases didn't even consider it at all, they made purely decorative products. Furniture to them became a fashionable accessory.

There really isn't any way to explain this style other than to show what was designed at this time, here are some examples:

Alessandro Mendini's Proust Armchair 

Alessandro Mendini was one of the most influential designers of this style 

Carlton Bookcase by Ettore Sottsass for Studio Alchimia

as you can see, there's no real inspiration which the designers drew on and no real sense of why they were designing something some way other than because they felt like making it red or blue or straight or curvy or whatever.

It was this ground breaking destruction of ideals that led to the eventual formation of the Post Modernism movement.

REFERENCES:
Charlotte & Peter Fiell, 2012. Design of the 20th Century (25). Edition. Taschen.

Thomas Hauffe, 2001. Design: From the Industrial Revolution to the 21st Century (Flipguides). Edition. Dumont Monte.

Unknown , (1978), Alessandro Mendini's Proust Armchair [ONLINE]. Available at:http://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/mkg_ideen_sitzen_mendini_poltrona_di_proust.jpg [Accessed 13 December 13].
Unknown , (1981), Ettore Sottsass' Carlton Bookshelf [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.stylepark.com/db-images/cms/article/img/v318415_958_480_626-11.jpg [Accessed 13 December 13].