Sottsass Ettore

Ettore Sottsass is the famous Italian architect and designer, one of the main ideologists of radical design, founder and leader of the legendary group Memphis. He is the happy owner of four awards Compasso d’Oro that comparable with Oscar in the field of design.

Born in Innsbruck, Austria. He grew up in Milan, where his father, Ettore Sottsass Sr. worked as an architect. He graduated from the Technical University of Turin in 1939. Since 1959 he worked as a design consultant at Olivetti. In that year, Ettore Sottsass with Mario Chow and Roberto Olivetti awarded Сompasso d'Oro for the model of the first Italian computer Olivetti Elea-9003. He designed the famous typewriter Valentine (1969). In the 1970s, he became a member of the studio «Alchemy». In 1981 was showed the first collection of Memphis at the Milan Salon. The main idea of the group — «Form prevails over function» — turned to a starting point for creating conceptual and provocative objects. In the 1980s he was foundered Sottsass Associati. The studio created furniture, accessories, boutiques (in particular, for shops Fiorucci, Esprit — from architecture to interior decoration). Sottsass Associati also had private house projects in the US, Colorado and the new Malpensa Airport in Milan. Together with Sottsass Associati the designer collaborated with companies such as Apple, NTT, Philips, and Siemens. He designed glass and ceramic objects, developed jewelry designs for Cleto Munari.