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colors are like words. with colors you can tell stories. —ettore sottsass



Ettore Sottsass wearing moustache, looking downwards

Ettore Sottsass, 1984. © Barbara Radice.

color and architecture

As an architect, Sottsass worked with vivid colors, and many of his buildings look almost as if built of Lego pieces. For materials, he used bricks, wood and stone. “I was recently in a building where everything was made of glass, even the floor. I walked like a turtle—it felt as if it was going to shatter under me. That’s not right, at least as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

Casa Wolf villa designed by Sottsass. Balconies and loggias

Casa Wolf, 1987–89. © Sottsass Associati, 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Interior of the Esprit showroom in Düsseldorf with red zigzag pillar in the foreground

Interior of the Esprit showroom, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1986. © Sottsass Associati, 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Gas station combined with a La Bottega shop

ERG Petroli service station, 1988–90. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Wooden interior of a hotel bar Zibibbo in Fukuoka, Japan

Bar Zibibbo, Hotel Il Palazzo, Fukuoka, Japan, 1989. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

The open-air Ettore Sottsass Pavilion at the Museo dell’Arredo Contemporaneo in Ravenna

The Ettore Sottsass Pavilion at the Museo dell’Arredo Contemporaneo, Ravenna, Italy, 1988. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

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when i began designing machines, i also began to think that these objects, which sit next to each other and around people, can influence not only physical conditions but emotions as well. they can touch the nerves, the blood, the muscles, the eyes and the moods of people. —ettore sottsass


A square-shaped robot on 16 small wheels

Robot, 1982–83. © Sottsass Associati.

sottsass associati

About the same time as the founding of Memphis, Sottsass started a second studio, which concentrated on consulting in the areas of architecture and design. Its clients over the years have included Apple, Fiat, Philips, Siemens and Alessi.

 

 

 

 

Sottsass Associati, 1993. From left to right: Mike Ryan, Marco Zanini, Mario Milizia, James Irvine, Johanna Grawunder and Ettore Sottsass. © Sottsass Associati.

ettore thought that design should help people become more aware of their existence: the space they live in, how to arrange it and their own presence in it.
—barbara radice, his wife


Office of Cementeria di Merone. An interior with a cupboard and a table
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