Profile:
Alessandro Mendini is an architect,
designer and artist, born in Milan in 1931
and died in 2019.
He graduated in Architecture in 1959,
and his first place of employment was
Studio Nizzoli Associati. In 1970 he
abandoned architectural design to focus
on journalism, specializing, naturally, in
architecture and design. He was editor
of Casabella from 1970 to 1976, and
the following year he founded Modo,
which he led until 1979. That same year,
Giò Ponti made him editor of Domus,
and he held this position until 1985. 25
years later, in March 2010, he resumed
his editorship of the magazine for a short
period.
In the seventies, Mendini participated
in many of the radical design experienc-
es arising at the time. In 1973 he was
one of the founding members of Global
Tools, a group that was part of the an-
ti-design movement, strongly opposed
to tradition. In 1979 he joined Studio
Alchimia, which aimed to create objects
with references to popular culture and
kitsch, outside the bounds of industrial
production, and of their own functionality.
Together with his brother Francesco,
in 1989 he opened Atelier Mendini in
Milan, creating objects, furniture, spaces,
paintings, installations and architecture.
He works with international companies
including Magis, Alessi, Philips, Cartier,
Bisazza, Swatch, Hermès and Venini,
and is a consultant for various industri-
al companies, as far away as eastern
Asia, helping them solve their image and
design difficulties.
He lectured in design at the Hoch-
schule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna,
and was made honorary professor at the
Academic Council of Guangzhou Acad-
emy of Fine Arts in China. He has or-
ganized many exhibitions and seminars
in Italy and further afield, and his works
are to be found in numerous museums
across the globe.
With Atelier Mendini, he worked in
various countries, designing such edi-
fices as the Alessi factories in a Omeg-
na, the new olympic swimming pool in
Trieste, a tower in Hiroshima, Japan, the
museum in Groningen, Netherlands, and
many other buildings in Europe and the
United States. In Korea, Atelier Mend-
ini designed the premises of the Milan
Triennale in Incheon, and also developed
various architectural, interior and design
works in Seoul.
In 2014 he was awarded his third
Compasso d’Oro for his lifetime achieve-
ments, the European Prize for Architec-
ture 2014 in Chicago, and an honorary
degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in
Wroclaw, Poland.
Alessandro
Mendini
