Alessandro Mendini: Innovazione in stare sederendo

In all of the designers I've both heard of and looked up in this project, there is no one who so successfully blurs the many very defined lines between art and design, and architecture and interior design. Alessandro Mendini, in his   
80 years has revolutionized the concept of design in chairs and architecture usually taking on rounded feminine shapes which Mendini believes simulates a sense of comfort especially in a house setting. The editor for three major Italian design magazines, Casabella, Domus and lastly Modo which he founded, he brought their focuses on neo avante garde concepts. 
Among his greatest accomplishments are his architectural designs which he created throughout his lifetime, the most famous being the Groningen Museum in Holland (seen below), the Teatro di Arrezo, Civic Tower in Sicily, Casino in Arosa, the forum at Omegna, and his collaboration to the Paradise Tower in Hiroshima, Japan. 

  He is most acknowledged for his creative, colorful and sometimes merely bizarre chair concepts. Mendini believed that a chair's design fell under the category of architecture, making each of his designs his next "artistic" masterpiece, designed to enlighten an individual or as he said "reawaken the [viewers] consciousness." His most notable concepts are the Proust (seen below) and Vassilij Armchair, Kandissi Divan, and the Dorifora and La Scala 

(seen below) armchairs. It was said that he took and incorporated the designs of the Bauhaus and Thonet, eventually creating his own school, the Global Tools Design school. As the innovator he was he was at the forefront, a driving force in the Nuovo Design or Neomodernismo movement classified by creating functionality alongside aesthetics in design.

In his many years in design he has gone through it all, designing products, teaching in Vienna, developing architectural concepts, writing and editing, working under many firms and starting many as well. As for his industrial/product design background he designed the geo coffee maker, Alessandro and Anna G. corkscrews (seen below), metroscape and cosmesis watches.

Of the firms he's worked with, he's worked for (mainly in his career) Aleesi, Cappellini, Cassina, Kundalini, Acme, Artemide, Zabro, Zanotta, Swatch (where he served as Art Director) and going into business with his brother, developing the architectural firm Atelier Mendini.
As legacies go, he has permanent exhibits at the Gilmar Paper Co., MOMA in New York City, the University of Parma, and the Aleesi Museum, as well as a commemoration at the Groningen Museum for designing the building. He has also received the prestigious Compasso d'Oro award for his work in and developing of Modo magazine. 



Alessandro Mendini. 2. Milan, Italy: Giancarlo Politi, 1989. 14;27;193. Print.


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