“When I began designing machines I also began to think that these objects, which sit next to each other and around people, can influence not only physical conditions but also emotions,” – ETTORE SOTTSASS
Ultrafragola Floor Mirror
and Lamp by Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer. His work included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office objects, and many buildings and interiors. He grew up in Turin and graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Torino in 1939. In 1947, in Milan, he founded his architecture and industrial design studio, where he began to create work using various media.
In 1956, Sottsass went to New York and started to work in George Nelson’s design studio. He established significant collaboration projects in Italy with Poltronova (1957) and Olivetti (1958). From the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s he collaborated with Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, within the Radical movement, until the foundation of Memphis Group in 1981, of which he was a founding member.
In the mid-’80s, with Sottsass Associati, mainly an architecture studio, he also designed elaborate shops and showrooms, company identities, exhibitions, interiors, Japanese consumer electronics, and furniture of all kinds. Ettore Sottsass was presented numerous international awards, winning the ADI Compasso d’Oro in 1959. His work is on show in the permanent collections of many museums around the world such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Centre G. Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Ettore Sottsass desired to bring his postmodern ideas into reality and practice. In December 1980, Sottsass reached out to a group of Italian architects and designers with a mutual dislike of the minimalist design prominent from the 1960s and 1970s. Together they formed the Memphis Group, a collaboration in design to create absurd and irrational postmodern furniture, fabric, patterns, ceramics, and plastic laminates with patterns that simulate precious materials inspired by art deco and pop art.
In September 1981, the group showed its first collection to the Milan Furniture Fair, with crowds flocking to see the exhibit so thick that Sottsass’ taxi could barely get through to the opening. Memphis quickly conquered public and press attention all over the world.
The iconic Memphis style defined the 1980s with modern design, bringing furniture and decor that went against the the idea of form following function is often described as kitschy and garish, bringing vibrant colours, geometric shapes, bold patterns, stripes, clashing colours, and abstract designs. To this day, Sottsass’s work remains so revolutionary and bold, and for a man who lived to astonish, there was no more significant accolade and a testament to his genius.
While the Memphis Milano design movement itself ended in 1987, the Sottsass Memphis style as a movement continues to inspire pop culture, design, and fashion. There was an endless array of different and conflicting design styles through the 1980s. It created a cultural movement and there was a liberating spirit in Memphis that is still a source for designers today. Many designers are interpreting the patterns and colours of Memphis in their fresh ways.
Pop culture, in particular, can be seen in TV Series like “Stranger Things” and was seen everywhere after the Met Breuer exhibition n 2017; “Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical,” but pieces are coming out today like the Elio Lamp, small by Soft-Geometry, the Tubo Bookend by Bi- Rite Studio and the Curvy Mirror by Gustaf Westman that I certainly feel Memphis Milano–inspired while evolving the design vocabulary and customising it for the way that we live today.
Alaska by Ettore Sottsass is a flower vase in silver-plated brass.
