Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass Jr was an Italian architect, designer and photographer. Son of the architect Ettore Sottsass Sr, he was born in Innsbruck in 1917 and graduated in architecture at the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1939. After the war he joined the Concrete Art Movement, which led him to exhibit various works as an artist. In 1957 he became artistic director of Poltronova, for which he designed various pieces of furniture, including the striped laminate covered wardrobes “Superbox” , inspired by road signs and petrol stations and the “Ultrafragola” mirror. In 1958 he began his long collaboration with Olivetti as a design consultant. In the late 1960s he came in contact with the Movement of Radical Architecture and in 1981 he was a founding member of the Memphis group. During the 1980s he dedicated himself to his studio, Sottsass Associati, designing showrooms, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics and design furniture. During his life he won three Compasso d'Oro awards and was Grand Officer for the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic from 2001 until 2007, the year of his death.