Ettore Sottsass
Encyclopedia
Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. His body of designs included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design.
Sottsass was born on 14 September 1917 in Innsbruck
, Austria, and grew up in Milan
, where his father was an architect.
He was educated at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin
and graduated in 1939 with a degree in architecture. He served in the Italian military and spent much of World War II in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. After returning home in 1947, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio in Milan.
In 1959 Sottsass began working as a design consultant for Olivetti, designing office equipment, typewriters and furniture. Sottsass was hired by Adriano Olivetti, the founder, to work alongside his son, Roberto. There Sottsass made his name as a designer who, through colour, form and styling, managed to bring office equipment into the realm of popular culture. Sottsass, Mario Tchou, and Roberto Olivetti won the prestigious 1959 Compasso d’Oro with the Elea 9003
, the first Italian mainframe computer
.
Throughout the 1960s, Sottsass traveled in the US and India and designed more products for Olivetti culminating in the bright red plastic portable Valentine typewriter in 1969, which became a fashion accessory. Sotsass described the Valentine as "a brio among typewriters." Compared with the typical drab typewriters of the day, the Valentine was more of a design statement item than an office machine.
While continuing to design for Olivetti in the 1960s, Sottsass developed a range of objects which were expressions of his personal experiences traveling in the United States and India. These objects included large alter-like ceramic sculptures and his "Superboxes"; radical sculptural gestures presented within a context of consumer product, as conceptual statement. Covered in bold and colorful, simulated custom laminates, they were precursors to Memphis, a movement which came more than a decade later. Around this time Sottsass has said,
and Archizoom
, culminating in the foundation of Memphis at the turn of the decade.
. A night of drinking and listening to Bob Dylan
's "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" gave the group its name. Memphis was launched with a collection of 40 pieces of furniture, ceramics, lighting, glass and textiles which featured fluorescent colors, slick surfaces, intentionally lop-sided shapes and squiggly laminate patterns.
The group's colourful, ironic pieces were considerably different from his earlier, more strictly modernist work, and that was hailed as one of the most characteristic examples of Post-modernism in design and the arts. Sottsass described Memphis in a 1986 Chicago Tribune article: "Memphis is like a very strong drug. You cannot take too much. I don't think anyone should put only Memphis around: It's like eating only cake." Memphis collection at: Memphis Design Collection
Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan and furniture of all kinds.
The studio was based on the cultural guidance of Ettore Sottsass and the work was conducted by the talent and energy of its associates. Over the years the associates came and went often to open their own studios, these were young architects and designers which included:
Johanna Grawunder, Marco Zanini, Matteo Thun, Aldo Cibic, Marco Susani, James Irvine, Mike Ryan, Gerry Taylor, Christoph Radl, Mario Milizia and Christopher Redfern.
List of the associates from the beginning to the present time: Daniel Aeschbacher, Anna Allegro, Flávia Alves de Souza, Michael Armani, Fabio Azzolina, Federica Barbiero, Veronica Bass, Michele Barro, Martine Bedin, Dante Bega, Elide Bega, Johnny Benson, Alberto Berengo Gardin, Cora Bishofberger, Pietro Bongiana, Manuela Boniforti, Guido Borelli, Ambrogio Borsani, Viviana Bottero, Edoardo Brambilla, Ulrike Broeking, Laurent Bourgois, Ruth Cabella, El Cannibal, Milco Carboni, Beppe Caturegli, Liana Cavallaro, Franco Cervi, Aldo Cibic, Annalisa Citterio, Pedro Cortacans, Elena Cutolo, Alberto Davila, José de Rivera Marinello, Elisabetta Della Torre, Monica Del Torchio, Giuseppe Del Greco, Claudio Dell'Olio, Paolo De Lucchi, Cristina Di Carlo, Simone Dreyfuss, Richard Eisermann, Ricardo Espinosa Ruiz, Bonni Evensen, Blanca Ferrer, Laura Feruglio, Peter Flint, Franca Foianini, Eugenia Folci, Maya Fong, Giovanella Formica, Barbara Forni, Riccardo Forti, Maria Paola Frau, Raffaella Galli, Massimo Giacon, Susanna Giancolombo, Paola Giovinelli, Annette Glatzel, Bruna Gnocchi, Theo Gonser, Nuala Goodman, Johanna Grawunder, Valentina Grego, Gertrud Gruber, Valentina Hermann, Shuji Hisada, Hugh Huddleson, James Irvine, Fumiko Itoh, Mercedes Jaén Ruiz, Nathalie Jean, Bessi Karavil, Mona Kim, Walter Kirpisenko, Christopher Kirwan, Francia Knapp Mooney, Ron Kopels, Takeaki Kaneko, Maki Kasano, Defne Koz, Paola Lambardi, Annette Lang, Larry Lasky, Oliver Layseca, Catharina Lorenz, Tina Leimbacher, Franco Luchini, Donato Maino, Marco Marabelli, Loredana Martinelli, Frédéric Mas, Cristina Massocchi, Luciana Mastropasqua, Cecilia Mazzone, Lorenzo Meccoli, Patrick Mellet, Costanza Melli, Sergio Menichelli, Monica Merlo, Mario Milizia, Yasukio Miwa, Alba Monti, Claudio Monti, Sebastiano Mosterts, Gianluigi Mutti, Kent Nalbandian, Davide Nardi, Nicola Nicolaidis, Jon Otis, Caterina Padova, Massimo Penati, Massimo Pertosa, Laura Persico, Susan Phelps, Adalberto Pironi, Roberto Pollastri, Marco Polloni, Timothy Power, Antonella Provasi, Christoph Radl, Elisabetta Redaelli, Christopher Redfern, Lucas Reimbold, Maria Marta Rey Rosa, Douglas Riccardi, Sara Ricciardi, Nicoletta Roia, Francisco Romero, Riccarda Ruberl, Mike Ryan, Giusi Salvadè, Maria Sanchez, Paolo Sancis, John Sandell, Mika Sato, Sabina Scornavacca, George Scott, David Shaw Nicholls, Eugenia Sicolo, Tony Smart, Massimo Schmid, Ettore Sottsass, Vittorio Spaggiari, Antonella Spiezio, Jenny Stein, Marco Susani, Ken Suzuki, Gerard Taylor, Giacomo Tedeschi, Flavia Thumshirn, Matteo Thun, Viviana Trapani, Jorge Vadillo, Susan Verba, Tiziano Vudafieri, Anna Wagner, Wendy Wheatley, Gail Wittwer, Bill Wurz, Yasuo Yamawaki, Carla Zanelli, Marco Zanini, Neven Zoricic.
Sottsass Associati are presently based in London and Milan and continue to sustain the work, philosophy and culture of the studio.
, Esprit
, the Italian furniture company Poltronova, Knoll International, Serafino Zani and Alessi. As an architect, he designed the Mayer-Schwarz Gallery on Rodeo Drive
in Beverly Hills, California
, with its dramatic doorway made of irregular folds and jagged angles, and the home of David M. Kelley
, designer of Apple's first computer mouse, in Woodside, California
. In the mid-1990s he designed the sculpture garden and entry gates of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Gallery
at the campus of Cal Poly Pomona. He collaborated with well known figures in the architecture and design field, including Aldo Cibic, James Irvine
, Matteo Thun
.
Sottsass had a vast body of work; furniture, jewellery, ceramics, glass, silver work, lighting, office machine design and buildings which inspired generations of architects and designers. In 2006 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
held the first major museum survey exhibition of his work in the United States. A retrospective exhibition, Ettore Sottsass: Work in Progress, was held at the Design Museum
in London in 2007. In 2009, the Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht presented a re-construction of a Sottsass' exhibition 'Miljö för a ny planet' (Landscape for a new planet), which took place in the National Museum in Stockholm in 1969.
Early career
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
, Austria, and grew up in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, where his father was an architect.
He was educated at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and graduated in 1939 with a degree in architecture. He served in the Italian military and spent much of World War II in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. After returning home in 1947, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio in Milan.
In 1959 Sottsass began working as a design consultant for Olivetti, designing office equipment, typewriters and furniture. Sottsass was hired by Adriano Olivetti, the founder, to work alongside his son, Roberto. There Sottsass made his name as a designer who, through colour, form and styling, managed to bring office equipment into the realm of popular culture. Sottsass, Mario Tchou, and Roberto Olivetti won the prestigious 1959 Compasso d’Oro with the Elea 9003
Olivetti Elea
The Elea 9003 is one of a series of mainframe computers Olivetti developed starting in the late 1950s. The system, made entirely with transistors for high performance, was conceived, designed and developed by a small group of researchers led by Mario Tchou...
, the first Italian mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
.
Throughout the 1960s, Sottsass traveled in the US and India and designed more products for Olivetti culminating in the bright red plastic portable Valentine typewriter in 1969, which became a fashion accessory. Sotsass described the Valentine as "a brio among typewriters." Compared with the typical drab typewriters of the day, the Valentine was more of a design statement item than an office machine.
While continuing to design for Olivetti in the 1960s, Sottsass developed a range of objects which were expressions of his personal experiences traveling in the United States and India. These objects included large alter-like ceramic sculptures and his "Superboxes"; radical sculptural gestures presented within a context of consumer product, as conceptual statement. Covered in bold and colorful, simulated custom laminates, they were precursors to Memphis, a movement which came more than a decade later. Around this time Sottsass has said,
I didn’t want to do any more consumerist products, because it was clear that the consumerist attitude was quite dangerous.The feeling that his creativity was being stifled by corporate work is documented in his 1973 essay "When I was a Very Small Boy", and subsequently his work in the '70s was defined by experimental collaborations with younger designers such as Superstudio
Superstudio
Superstudio was an architecture firm, founded in 1966 in Florence, Italy by Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia. Superstudio was one of major part of the Radical architecture movement of the late 1960s...
and Archizoom
Archizoom
Archizoom Association was a design studio founded in 1966 in Florence, Italy, by four architects: Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi; and two designers: Dario Bartolini and Lucia Bartolini....
, culminating in the foundation of Memphis at the turn of the decade.
Memphis Group
In 1981, Sottsass and an international group of young architects and designers, came together to form the Memphis GroupMemphis Group
The Memphis Group was an Italian design and architecture group started by Ettore Sottsass that designed Post Modern furniture, fabrics, ceramics, glass and metal objects from 1981-1987.-Origins:...
. A night of drinking and listening to Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" gave the group its name. Memphis was launched with a collection of 40 pieces of furniture, ceramics, lighting, glass and textiles which featured fluorescent colors, slick surfaces, intentionally lop-sided shapes and squiggly laminate patterns.
The group's colourful, ironic pieces were considerably different from his earlier, more strictly modernist work, and that was hailed as one of the most characteristic examples of Post-modernism in design and the arts. Sottsass described Memphis in a 1986 Chicago Tribune article: "Memphis is like a very strong drug. You cannot take too much. I don't think anyone should put only Memphis around: It's like eating only cake." Memphis collection at: Memphis Design Collection
Sottsass Associati
Whilst the Memphis movement in the eighties attracted enormous attention around the world for its energy and flamboyance, Ettore Sottsass was simultaneously assembling a major design consultancy which he named Sottsass Associati. The studio was established in 1980 and gave the possibility to build architecture on a substantial scale as well as to design for large international industries.Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan and furniture of all kinds.
The studio was based on the cultural guidance of Ettore Sottsass and the work was conducted by the talent and energy of its associates. Over the years the associates came and went often to open their own studios, these were young architects and designers which included:
Johanna Grawunder, Marco Zanini, Matteo Thun, Aldo Cibic, Marco Susani, James Irvine, Mike Ryan, Gerry Taylor, Christoph Radl, Mario Milizia and Christopher Redfern.
List of the associates from the beginning to the present time: Daniel Aeschbacher, Anna Allegro, Flávia Alves de Souza, Michael Armani, Fabio Azzolina, Federica Barbiero, Veronica Bass, Michele Barro, Martine Bedin, Dante Bega, Elide Bega, Johnny Benson, Alberto Berengo Gardin, Cora Bishofberger, Pietro Bongiana, Manuela Boniforti, Guido Borelli, Ambrogio Borsani, Viviana Bottero, Edoardo Brambilla, Ulrike Broeking, Laurent Bourgois, Ruth Cabella, El Cannibal, Milco Carboni, Beppe Caturegli, Liana Cavallaro, Franco Cervi, Aldo Cibic, Annalisa Citterio, Pedro Cortacans, Elena Cutolo, Alberto Davila, José de Rivera Marinello, Elisabetta Della Torre, Monica Del Torchio, Giuseppe Del Greco, Claudio Dell'Olio, Paolo De Lucchi, Cristina Di Carlo, Simone Dreyfuss, Richard Eisermann, Ricardo Espinosa Ruiz, Bonni Evensen, Blanca Ferrer, Laura Feruglio, Peter Flint, Franca Foianini, Eugenia Folci, Maya Fong, Giovanella Formica, Barbara Forni, Riccardo Forti, Maria Paola Frau, Raffaella Galli, Massimo Giacon, Susanna Giancolombo, Paola Giovinelli, Annette Glatzel, Bruna Gnocchi, Theo Gonser, Nuala Goodman, Johanna Grawunder, Valentina Grego, Gertrud Gruber, Valentina Hermann, Shuji Hisada, Hugh Huddleson, James Irvine, Fumiko Itoh, Mercedes Jaén Ruiz, Nathalie Jean, Bessi Karavil, Mona Kim, Walter Kirpisenko, Christopher Kirwan, Francia Knapp Mooney, Ron Kopels, Takeaki Kaneko, Maki Kasano, Defne Koz, Paola Lambardi, Annette Lang, Larry Lasky, Oliver Layseca, Catharina Lorenz, Tina Leimbacher, Franco Luchini, Donato Maino, Marco Marabelli, Loredana Martinelli, Frédéric Mas, Cristina Massocchi, Luciana Mastropasqua, Cecilia Mazzone, Lorenzo Meccoli, Patrick Mellet, Costanza Melli, Sergio Menichelli, Monica Merlo, Mario Milizia, Yasukio Miwa, Alba Monti, Claudio Monti, Sebastiano Mosterts, Gianluigi Mutti, Kent Nalbandian, Davide Nardi, Nicola Nicolaidis, Jon Otis, Caterina Padova, Massimo Penati, Massimo Pertosa, Laura Persico, Susan Phelps, Adalberto Pironi, Roberto Pollastri, Marco Polloni, Timothy Power, Antonella Provasi, Christoph Radl, Elisabetta Redaelli, Christopher Redfern, Lucas Reimbold, Maria Marta Rey Rosa, Douglas Riccardi, Sara Ricciardi, Nicoletta Roia, Francisco Romero, Riccarda Ruberl, Mike Ryan, Giusi Salvadè, Maria Sanchez, Paolo Sancis, John Sandell, Mika Sato, Sabina Scornavacca, George Scott, David Shaw Nicholls, Eugenia Sicolo, Tony Smart, Massimo Schmid, Ettore Sottsass, Vittorio Spaggiari, Antonella Spiezio, Jenny Stein, Marco Susani, Ken Suzuki, Gerard Taylor, Giacomo Tedeschi, Flavia Thumshirn, Matteo Thun, Viviana Trapani, Jorge Vadillo, Susan Verba, Tiziano Vudafieri, Anna Wagner, Wendy Wheatley, Gail Wittwer, Bill Wurz, Yasuo Yamawaki, Carla Zanelli, Marco Zanini, Neven Zoricic.
Sottsass Associati are presently based in London and Milan and continue to sustain the work, philosophy and culture of the studio.
Other works
As an industrial designer, his clients included FiorucciFiorucci
Fiorucci is an Italian fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1967. The first shop exposed Milan to the styles of Swinging London and American classics such as the T-shirt and jeans. By the late 1970s and early 1980s this would be reversed, and the New York store would become famous for the...
, Esprit
Esprit Holdings
Esprit Holdings Limited is a publicly owned manufacturer of apparel, footwear, accessories, jewellery and housewares under the Esprit label. The company is headquartered in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and Ratingen , Germany. In the 2007–2008 business year, Esprit Holdings Limited generated a worldwide...
, the Italian furniture company Poltronova, Knoll International, Serafino Zani and Alessi. As an architect, he designed the Mayer-Schwarz Gallery on Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
, with its dramatic doorway made of irregular folds and jagged angles, and the home of David M. Kelley
David M. Kelley
David M. Kelley is an American businessman, entrepreneur, designer, engineer, and teacher. He is founder, chairman, and managing partner of the design firm IDEO and a professor at Stanford University. He has received several honors for his contributions to design and design education.-Personal...
, designer of Apple's first computer mouse, in Woodside, California
Woodside, California
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....
. In the mid-1990s he designed the sculpture garden and entry gates of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Gallery
Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design
The California State Polytechnic University, Pomona College Environmental Design also known as the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design is one of Cal Poly Pomona's seven colleges. The college houses over 1,600 students; making it one of largest environmental design programs in the...
at the campus of Cal Poly Pomona. He collaborated with well known figures in the architecture and design field, including Aldo Cibic, James Irvine
James Irvine
James Irvine may refer to:* James Irvine , politician, Vice-President of Pennsylvania* James Irvine , chemist and Principal of the University of St Andrews...
, Matteo Thun
Matteo Thun
Matteo Thun, born in 1952 in Bolzano, Italy, is a famous architect and designer.-Early years:Thun studied at the Salzburg Academy under the supervision of Oskar Kokoschka. He then obtained a degree in architecture in Florence, Italy, in 1975...
.
Sottsass had a vast body of work; furniture, jewellery, ceramics, glass, silver work, lighting, office machine design and buildings which inspired generations of architects and designers. In 2006 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
held the first major museum survey exhibition of his work in the United States. A retrospective exhibition, Ettore Sottsass: Work in Progress, was held at the Design Museum
Design Museum
Design Museum is a museum by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. It was founded in 1989 and claims to be the first museum of modern design...
in London in 2007. In 2009, the Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht presented a re-construction of a Sottsass' exhibition 'Miljö för a ny planet' (Landscape for a new planet), which took place in the National Museum in Stockholm in 1969.
External links
- Sottsass design collection and other Memphis design
- A conversation with designer Ettore Sottsass, television interview with Charlie Rose, 29 November 2004, video.
- Ettore Sottsass. Existential Design, published by Hans Höger in domusWeb, Milan 2005.
- Emeco Nine-0 by Ettore Sottsass
- The Life and Times of Ettore Sottsass
- Jennifer Kabat on Ettore Sottsass
- STORIES OF HOUSES: Ernest Mourmans' House in Belgium, by Ettore Sottsass
- Hans Höger on Ettore Sottsass: Existential Design, DomusWeb, April 2005.
- Olivetti official site
- Obituary in The Times, 2 January 2008
- Design Museum Collection
- Sottsass Associati