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Alessandro Mendini

Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019) was an architect, designer and artist.
He graduated in architecture in 1959, and his first place of work was at Studio Nizzoli Associati. In 1970 he abandoned architectural design to devote himself to journalism, specialising, naturally, in architecture and design. He was editor of Casabella from 1970 to 1976, and the following year he founded Modo, which he directed until 1979. That same year, Giò Ponti appointed him director of Domus, a position he held until 1985. 25 years later, in March 2010, he took over the direction of the magazine for a short period.

In the 1970s, Mendini participated in many of the radical design experiments that emerged at the time. In 1973 he was one of the founding members of Global Tools, a group that was part of the anti-design movement, strongly opposed to tradition. In 1979 he joined Studio Alchimia, whose aim was to create objects with references to popular culture and kitsch, outside the limits of industrial production and their own functionality.

Together with his brother Francesco, he opened Atelier Mendini in Milan in 1989, where he created objects, furniture, spaces, paintings, installations and architecture. He worked with international companies such as Magis, Alessi, Philips, Cartier, Bisazza, Swatch, Hermès and Venini, and was a consultant to various industrial companies as far away as East Asia, helping them to solve their image and design difficulties.