What ever happened to pleasurable design? Looking back on Alessandro Mendini's career

2019-03-01T18:06:00-05:00

Exuberant design was [Alessandro] Mendini’s specialty. Mendini died last week, age 87, and his death leaves a void in the school of thought that favored emotion and surprise over the cold efficiency that has come to dominate much of design, calibrated as it is to the precise and bottomless needs of the technology industry.

Trained as an architect with a passion for design, Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019) will be remembered as an advocate for the function of pleasure in design. Mendini and other Italian architects and designers championed a vibrant postmodernism throughout the second half of the 20th century, but Mendini's work was uniquely pervasive in the modern design world.

Anna, designed by Alessandro Medini

Medini's Anna corkscrew (above) was one of the most popular items in the Alessi lineup when it was designed in 1994. Of the design, Fast Company's Suzanne Labarre wrote that "as you stab the screw into a cork and twist, Anna’s arms rise up over her head in a silent hallelujah to the wine-fueled revelry that awaits. Today you can buy all manner of wine openers: electric ones, air pressure pumps, one-handed varieties. But how many corkscrews can make you laugh out loud?"

Medini's name was said in the same sentences as those including Michael Graves and Ettore Sottsass among aesthetes in the 80s...

Santiago Calatrava wins The European Prize for Architecture

2015-10-14T13:25:00-04:00

On November 17th, Santiago Calatrava, whose designs have inspired awe both for breaking aesthetic and financial boundaries, will be awarded The European Prize for Architecture at the World Trade Center in New York City. Calling Santiago Calatrava a "visionary theorist, philosopher and utopian and a true artist in the craft of engineering and architectonic expressionism" Chicago Athenaeum president Christian Narkiewicz-Laine went on to say that "it is significant that the European Prize for Architecture recognizes Mr. Calatrava as an architect, engineer, sculptor and painter." Past recipients of the prize include Bjarke Ingels (2010), and Alessandro Mendini (2014).

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What ever happened to pleasurable design? Looking back on Alessandro Mendini's career

Santiago Calatrava wins The European Prize for Architecture