Alessandro Mendini

In 1959 he graduated from the Milan Polytechnic and began working with Marcello Nizzoli. He was one of the founders of a movement called radical design, characterised by the use of bright colours, geometric patterns and unconventional materials. His work was based on the concept of arte povera, rejecting an overtechnical, rational and consumer-oriented society, and he organised provocative happenings and collaborated with Milan Knížák. He was a founding member of the Global Tools team, worked for Studio Alchimia, and in 1989 founded his own studio with his brother Francesco Mendini. He worked as editor-in-chief of the professional magazines Casabella and Domus, lectured at the University of Milan and was also one of the founders of the private school Domus Academy.

He has worked with Slide, Philips, Swarovski, Cartier, Magis, Swatch, Hermès and Kartell. He designed a theatre in Arezzo, a swimming stadium in Trieste, three stops of the Neapolitan metro and the Groningen Museum in the Netherlands, which is considered one of the iconic works of postmodern architecture for its striking yellow tower. It has won the Italian industrial design prize Compasso d'Oro, the French Order of Arts and Letters and, in 2014, the European Prize for Architecture.