Matteo Thun

Matteo Thun is an Italian architect and designer, born and raised in the bilingual German-Italian region of South Tyrol. Thun studied under Oskar Kokoschka and Emilio Vedova at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in architecture from the University of Florence in 1975 under Adolfo Natalini. In 1978 he moved to Milan, met Ettore Sottsass and began working in his studio. In 1981 he was one of the co-founders of the Memphis Group. The following year, the Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna appointed him chairman of industrial design and ceramics.

In 1984 he opened his own studio in Milan and later founded Matteo Thun + Partners: a multicultural architecture and design studio based in Milan and Shanghai. The studio's work focuses on aesthetic durability, technological durability and future durability of buildings and products. It has won the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award for Design Excellence three times, as well as the Good Design Award and the Simon Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award. In December, he was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in New York. He is a member of the RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects and has worked with many international design brands such as Driade and Artemide.