Alessandro Mendini

ALESSANDRO MENDINI (Milan, 1931-2019) for Alessi.
Bombonera "La Tavola di Babele", "Peyrano" Collection. 1990.
Stainless steel.
In original box.
Measurements: 12 x 28 x 18 cm.
Alessandro Mendini is one of the main personalities of the Italian Radical design movement, as well as an important planner, designer and critic of the Italian panorama. Trained at the Polytechnic of Madrid in 1959, his activity was not limited only to architecture, but also excelled in the field of design. His theoretical work was also very important, both with the famous Studio Alchimia and with his brother Francesco, also an architect, with whom he founded the Atelier Mendini (1989). He was director of Casabella (1970-1976) and Domus (1980-1985 and 2010-2011), and founder of the magazines Modo (1977) and Ollo (1988). Mendini collaborated with renowned international brands such as Alessi, Bisazza, Cartier, Hermès, Philips, Swatch and Venini, for which he designed collections of household items, objects and furniture. Also worth mentioning are the Anna G. corkscrew for Alessi (1994) and, in the new century, the luxurious column for Cartier (2002), the Magis Proust armchair for Magis (2011) and the Amuleto lamp (2013) for Ramun. At the architectural level, his creations include the Alessi factory in Omegna, the Byblos Art Hotel-Villa Amistà in Verona and the multifunctional complex (including the municipal theater) in Arezzo, among other buildings. Outside Italy, the Paradiso Tower in Hiroshima (Japan), a neighborhood in Lugano (Switzerland), the Madsack headquarters in Hannover and a commercial building in Lörrach (Germany), as well as numerous buildings in Europe, the United States and Asia. His numerous awards include two Compasso d'Oro design awards (1979 and 1981). He also received the New York Architectural League Award, the honorary degree from the Milan Polytechnic and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (France), and the 2015 European Architecture Prize.