Test your Design IQ
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the London-born Milan-based designer who is regarded by masters of design as the wunderkind of contemporary architecture, and who has worked with internationally renowned companies like Artemide, Canon, LG, Muji, Olivetti, Thonet, and Whirlpool?
In 1999, he designed a body for the Mercedes Benz 0530 Citaro bus for the city of Hanover for its Expo 2000. He was born in London in 1958, and recalls that as a young boy, he always liked building things. Lego was one of his first toys. He studied furniture design first at Kingston University and then at the Royal College of Art.
One of his closest friends at both institutions was his fellow designer Jasper Morrison, who remains a friend and an occasional collaborator to this day. After graduating from the RCA in 1984, he worked first at Olivetti’s design studio in Milan and then for Toshiba in Tokyo before returning to Milan in 1988.
He continued to work for Olivetti, under the guidance of Etore Sottsass, whom he considers “an extraorodinary man, he taught me to appreciate certain aspects of the quality of life and above all, he taught me to shed preconceptions.” In 1992, he became a partner in the studio of Sottsass. He considers the 1990s “as one of my most formative times when Jasper Morrison and I worked together conceiving and art directing Progetto Oggetto for Cappellini.”
Since leaving Sottsasss Associati in 1998 to concentrate on his own projects, he has developed products, furniture, and automotive projects for companies like Arabia, Artemide, B&B Italia, Canon, Danese, Magi, and Whirlpool, all known for their elegant, functional work.
He has always believed to “question why you’re doing something unless you are being paid a ridiculous amount of money, then really question it.” This combination of rigor and irony not only characterizes his work as an industrial designer, but the part-purposeful, part-humorous spirit of the products he develops.
His famous works include the iconic Centomila chairs for Magis in 1999, Soundwave for Whirlpool in 2000, Daisy for Danese in 2004, a coat stand with essential lines, just one bend round bar with an unusual and playful look, the Gunghult rocking chair for Ikea in 2002, and the Belvedere mirror for Danese in 2006. He also designed the Mercedes Benz bus fleet for the German city of Hannover in 2000.
Among his numerous achievements, he finds time to act as creative director of bent-wood furniture company Thonet, as well as being a design consultant to the Japanese design house Muji. Ever efficient, he recently engineered a collaboration between the two and launched a series of chairs supported by a single, bowed panel, and equally simple tables. More recently, he was behind the multi-faceted Casino shelving system for Galerie Kreo and the wonderfully simple desk lamp named after him from Wasberg, and plans a pop-up shop for Phaidon in London’s Piccadilly.
Technically sophisticated and aesthetically unfussy, his work is about good design, not the sound of bells and whistles. For his work, he has been awarded an honorary degree in design by Kingston University in 2007, and named the Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts in London.
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Last week’s question: Who is the American-born Italian-French chef best known for his award-winning restaurants Renior and Alex in Las Vegas, and was named the Best Chef in the Southwest by the James Beard Foundation in 1998?
Answer: Alessandro Stratta
Winner: Rosalinda A. Reyes of QC
