Alessandro Mendini

ALESSANDRO MENDINI, architect, was born in Milan in 1931. He has authored books, seminars and design exhibitions in Italy and abroad. He is a member of the scientific committee of Domus Academy, International School of Design. Along with Ettore Sottsass, Michele De Lucchi, Andrea Branzi and others, he was responsible for organizing Alchimia, the very influential design group which preceded Memphis. Mendini has work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in the archives of Parma University (Italy) and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 1979 he won the “Compasso d’Oro” design prize. He also designed the Alessi house with Aldo Rossi and Ettore Sottsass. After years of formulating plans and drawing up sketches, after endless discussions and consultations, the ultimate design of the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, by Mendini and three guest architects that he invited, (Philippe Starck, Michele De Lucchi and Coop Himmelblau) was completed in 1994.