designers
Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass studied architecture at the Turin Polytechnic where he graduated in 1939. In 1947 he began working as a designer in Milan, opening his own design studio. Sottsass began his career working for companies such as Poltronova and Olivetti for which he designed numerous office objects including Summa-19, Divisumma 26 and Logos 27 calculators, Praxis 48 and Valentine typewriters, and the Synthesis system. The computer Mainframe Elea 9003 was his most important project and which saw him win the Golden Compass in 1959. In 1979 he took part in the Design Forum in Linz, Austria and introduced various design objects: "Dining chair", the floor lamp "Svincolo" and the coffee table "Trembling Structures". In 1981 he founded the Memphis group together with other illustrious colleagues such as Andrea Branzi, Michele de Lucchi, Hans Hollein, Arata Isozaki with the aim of designing absurd and monumental furniture. In 1980 he founded the Sottsass Associati studio with Aldo Cibic, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanini and Marco Marabelli. In 1988, together with Barbara Radice, Christoph Radl, Anna Wagner and Santi Caleca, he created "Terrazzo", the design and architecture magazine. He died on 31 December 2007 at the age of ninety. Ettore Sottsass designed the Callimaco designer lamps and the famous ministerial table lamp Pausania for Artemide.
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