Ettore Sottsass – “UFO Tables and Magic Carpet Sofa Chairs”

ETTORE SOTTSASS By Susan Germann

 “Good design is like the possibility to fly to the moon.  Only a few will really achieve that, but the awareness that this possibility exists has changed the lives of millions of people”

If you’re old enough or a design buff, you might remember the iconic red plastic Olivetti typewriter – one of Sottsass’s designs!

Ettore Sottsass believed design should be sensual and exciting, not only functional.    I must admit I had to look twice at many of Sottsass’s designs to work out their purpose – a boxing ring meeting space and a UFO table that look like my cup would slide right off it…

Sottsass became an acknowledged leader in the Anti-Design movement, which opposed the predictability of every day objects, “poking fun” at the seriousness of functional objects.   Sottsass secured a place in pop culture with his designs of every day items including office cabinets, lamps, silverware, icebuckets and furniture.   In his lifetime, he worked as an artist, architect, industrial designer, glass maker, publisher, and ceramicist.

Sottsass was born in Austria in 1917, His father was a prominent Italian architect and they  moved to Italy in 1929 so Sottsass could study architecture in Milan.  He opened his first architectural studio there in 1947.  Sottsass worked with a group of Avant Garde furniture designers including Mendini and Branzi in the 70’s at Alchymia and was also hired by one of my favourite Italian designers Alessi, around this time.

In 1980,  Sottsass  started his own collective Memphis, which was seen as the future of design.  The Memphis designs were exhibited all over the world and attracted over 2,000 people to the Opening party in 1981.  Memphis designed colourful ambiguous pieces, unconventional in patterned plastics and exotic veneers, kitch geometric and leopard skin pattern, neon tubes, zinc plated metal sheets.

Sottass’s designs are certainly stand alone pieces that make a statement.    A  notable piece in the 60’s was the  “superbox” closets in stripey plastic laminates,  and the multi-functional fibreglass furniture unit was the toast of Italy in 1972.   In 1981, Sottsass’s Beverly cabinet sported green and yellow snakeskin laminate doors with brown tortoiseshell book shelves.   His stained wood bookshelf from 1992 looks like three red lightening bolts shooting from a red platform.   Although not items I would furnish my house with (mind you, i am partial to the magic carpet sofa chair)

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I can appreciate their artistic value and aesthetic.

Sottsass quit Memphis in 1985 during the height of its success, to form his own architectural practice,  Sottsass Associate, and designed shops for Esprit and the Milan airport in 2000.

Ettore died in 2007 in Milan.

“He never lost the love of the object,” said Susan Yelavich, an assistant professor at Parsons the New School for Design. “There’s a sensuality, a sheer hedonism, that is so welcome and undeniable.”