ETTORE SOTTSASS Jr.




ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTS





January 1997



Ettore Sottsass requires no introduction to the professional public. For years he was part of the avant-garde of architecture and design. We have only to consider his pioneer design work for Olivetti such as their first computer, ELEA, or even the legendary Valentine type-writer. It was these products which established the reputation of Italian industrial design.
Even later, with the revolution in
architecture in the late 70s when "architects did not have to be silent anymore", Sottsass played an important role in exploring the language of architecture. By establishing the group "Memphis" he was given the framework for his experiments. During this period he examined the possibilities and extreme boundaries of post- modernism, a task that every artistic orientation must strive to fulfil. In short, Ettore Sottsass Jr., architect, designer, painter, theorist and writer is the initiator of a new design and a new architecture which extend beyond functionalism. Thus he continuously explores the more readily perceived alternatives of defining with colour, shape and space, and tries to inspire objects with poetics.