Architect, designer and art director. In 1986, he and Nicoletta Canesi founded Lissoni Associati, a multidisciplinary architecture and design firm based in Milan.

This was followed by the opening of the visual communications company Graph.x in 1996 and later by the architecture firms Lissoni Architettura and the New York based Lissoni Inc.. With its multinational staff, the group encompasses all aspects of architecture, interiors and product design, as well as graphics, art direction and corporate identity, extending globally to include hotel, restaurant, residential, corporate, retail and exhibition design. Piero Lissoni is art director for major brands such as Boffi and De Padova and designs collections for internationally renowned names including Alessi, Flos, Glas Italia, Living Divani, Kartell, Kerakoll, Knoll and Porro. He has received an array of international awards, amongst which the Good Design Award, the Red Dot Award and the ADI Compasso d’Oro.

Born in 1954, he completed his master’s degree at the University of Tokyo in 1979. After studying at Columbia University as Visiting Scholar, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates 1990. In 2009, he was installed as Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Tokyo.

Among Kuma’s major works are Kirosan Observatory (1995), Water/Glass (1995, received AIA Benedictus Award), Stage in Forest, Noh Stage in the Forest (received 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Award), Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum (received The Murano Prize). His recent works include Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum (2010), Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center (2012), Nagaoka City Hall Aore (2012) and Ginza Kabukiza (2013).

Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren are the members of the Swedish design group Front. Their works are based on common discussions, explorations and experiments and they are all involved in the projects from initial ideas to the final product. Front’s design objects often communicate a story to the observer about the design process, about the material it is made of or about conventions within the design field. In their work they have assigned part of the making of design to animals, computers or machines. They have made a constantly changing interior, created objects with explosions, robotic furniture and a range of furniture inspired by their fascination with magic.

Founded in 1983 in Sao Paulo by brothers Fernando (born 1961) and Humberto (born 1953) Campana, Estudio Campana became famous for its furniture design and the creation of intriguing objects such as the Vermelha and Favela chairs and has grown to include Interior Design, Architecture, Landscaping, Scenography, Fashion, Artistic Partnerships and more.

The Campanas work incorporates the idea of transformation, reinvention and the integration of craftsmanship in mass production. Giving preciousness to common materials carries not only the creativity in their design but also their very Brazilian characteristics—the colours, the mixtures, the creative chaos, the triumph of simple solutions.

Companies such as Alessi, Artecnica, Baccarat, Bernardaud, Consentino, Corsi Design, Edra, Fendi, Grendene, H. Stern, Lacoste, Louis Vuitton, Moleskine, Nodus, Skitsch, Trousseau, Venini and others produce the ideas created by the team at the studio, which also signs its own line of limited numbered editions and unique pieces often crafted in partnership with artisan communities and NGOs.

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1917. He received his degree in architecture from the Turin Polytechnic in 1939. In 1947 he opened his own architecture and design office in Milan.

His collaboration with Olivetti began in 1958 and lasted for over thirty years, during which he received three Compasso d’Oro design awards. Among the items he designed for Olivetti are: “Elea”, the first Italian electronic calculator, in 1959; “Tekne 3”, “Praxis 48”, the red portable typewriter “Valentina” and “Sistema 45”.

All throughout the ‘60s and early ‘70s, Sottsass’s work explored the themes that would stand central to his designs in the years to come: it was during this period that he laid the foundations for what would later be called Nuovo Design. 

In the second half of the ‘60s, Sottsass starts Pianeta Fresco, magazine co-edited with Allen Ginsberg and Fernanda Pivano and he is involved in the first debates on Radical Architecture, followed, at the beginning of the ‘70s, by several conceptual counter-design works. 

ALPI

ALPI was the first company in the world to industrialise the production process of composite wood.

From a workshop of fine cabinet making the company rapidly evolved into an industrial leader in the production of decorative surfaces. Its story is a vibrant tale of a manufacturing tradition focused on excellence and of the Alpi family, still at the helm of the firm today, through three generations, starting with founder Pietro Alpi in 1919.

The progress from a carpentry workshop to an industrial firm specialising in the production of prefabricated panels and wooden surfaces for the still nascent furniture sector began in the 1950s, with the arrival in the company of Valerio Alpi, son of the founder, and the launching of widespread distribution across the national territory. In 1961 the product ‘ALPIlignum’ was introduced, the first composite veneer and still the brand’s most representative item.

A true revolution made possible by extraordinary technological research and an extensive background in cabinet making, which led to rapid growth on international markets. Elton Group recognized the potential of the product and became the first export customer for ALPIlignum back in the early 1960’s.

ALPI is today, under the leadership of Vittorio Api, a partner of leading brands in the luxury, automotive and nautical sectors, as well as prestigious companies in the fields of furnishings, product design, interior architecture and contract, with projects ranging from hotels to multi-apartment complexes, retail to public spaces.

APPLICATIONS

Surfaces for furnishings; surfaces and facings for interior architecture; hotels, multi-apartment and residential complexes, shops, retail outlets, offices, public spaces; wood for floors, window and door frames, wall panelling, acoustic panelling; surfaces and facings for the interiors of yachts and cruise ships; dashboard surfaces and interior finishing for automobiles; objects.