Alessandro
Mendini

Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019), an architect, designer, artist, and critic born in Milan, was among the theorists and promoters of the renewal of Italian design. He was the editor of the magazines Casabella, Modo, and Domus. Monographs in different languages were published on his work and on the work he shared with his groups. He produced objects, furniture, spaces, paintings, architectures in cooperation with international companies, and was a consultant to several industries, including in the Far East. An honorary member of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, he received three Compasso d’Oro awards for design, and was honoured as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, with the Architectural League in New York, and with the European Prize for Architecture 2014 in Chicago. He received four degrees Honoris Causa in Milan, Paris, Wroclaw (Poland), and Seoul (Korea). His works are on display in museums and private collections. Alongside his brother, architect Francesco Mendini, he worked in the field of architecture and designed the Alessi Factories in Omegna; the Olympic swimming-pool in Trieste; underground stations in Naples; the recovery of an industrial lot in the Bovisa district in Milan; a tower in Hiroshima, Japan; the Groningen Museum in Holland; a district in Lugano, Switzerland; the Madsack office building in Hannover and a Commercial building in Lörrach, Germany. In the Far East he designed the Posco residential district in Seoul; the Observation Tower in the city of Suncheon; and the high-speed train terminal in Gwangju.