PRESS RELEASE

DECEMBER 10, 2014 DUBLIN, IRELAND

ICONIC ITALIAN ARCHITECT ALESSANDRO MENDINI WINS THE EUROPEAN PRIZE FOR ARCHITECTURE

Europe’s Highest Award Presented to Italy’s Visionary Architect at a Ceremony Sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company in this January

As an architect, philosopher, architectural theorist, visionary, and design practitioner, the influence of Alessandro Mendini in contemporary architecture spans close to half a century; and this year, he has been named as the recipient of the 2014 European Prize for Architecture.

His work ranges from the creation of iconic objects, furnishings, interiors, paintings and installations to architecture and urban planning, and also includes significant theoretical work, both with the famous Studio Alchimia and with his brother Francesco, an architect, with whom he founded Atelier Mendini in 1989.

The nomination and the award confirm The European Prize for Architecture’s direction in recognizing those influential architects that have changed and challenged the direction of contemporary architecture today and who have blazoned a more humane and intellectual approach to architecture, acknowledging their pursuits and their achievements before a European and world-wide audience.

The European Prize is awarded to those rare architects who have demonstrated the highest standard of public design and have significant contributed to humanity and to the built environment through the highest art of architecture.

The European Prize for Architecture is given every year as a collaborative effort between The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

-MORE- Previous recent laureates of The European Prize for Architecture include: The Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels (2010); the German architects, Graft Architekten (2011); the Norwegian firm, TYIN tegnestue Architects (2012); and the Finnish Architect, Marco Casagrande (2013).

A ceremony for what has become known throughout the world as European architecture’s highest honor will be held in Milan at a formal dinner hosted by Hyundai Motor Company this January. Mayor Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of the City of Milan, has been invited to formally present the Prize to Mendini.

Mendini’s cross-over architectural work thoroughly encompasses the realms of architecture, art, design, and architectural theory where the borders of each have been completely blurred and broken-down.

Mendini came up with definitions of a number of theoretical concepts regarding historic design phenomena and movements (including “postmodern design” and “re-design”) and has made an essential contribution to their expression and critical analysis since the 1970s.

“Alessandro Mendini,” states Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President of the Chicago Athenaeum, “is one of the rare, most iconic architects and architectural minds in the history of art and architecture a nd clearly within the profound ranks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Palladio, Alberti, and Ledoux. His philosophic thinking is more than original. He has pushed concept beyond the perimeters of the inventive, relentlessly searching, in a most non-compromising way, for the most essential design idea. And the results center on the most visionary and far-reaching of our times. In an era where architectural ideas are copied and duplicated worldwide faster than ‘viral,’ Mendini and his works remain singular, prophetic, and original with the unique finger print of nothing less than a genius architect.”

“Not since Frank Lloyd Wright,” continues Narkiewicz-Laine, “has the world seen a more theory-driven and profound-thinking architect than Mendini.”

His many architecture projects in Italy include: Alessi Offices and Factory (Two Extensions of the Factory at Crusinallo), Omegna, (Italy) 1993; Swimming and Sports Centre, Trieste (Italy), 2004; Naples Metro System – Santa Rosa/Materdei/Università stations, Naples (Italy), 2000-2009; Town Hall, Naples (Italy), 1999; Byblos Art Hotel-Villa Amistà, Verona (Italy), 2005; Trend Group’s offices in Vicenza (Villa Alle Scalette) 2005; Bovisa Tech District in Milan, Italy; Reorganisation and Street Furnishings for the Seaside Promenade in Catanzaro, Catanzaro (Italy); Complex in Via della Bicchieraia (including the Municipal Theatre, Teatro Comunale Aretino), Arezzo (Italy), 1997;La Casa della Felicità" for Alberto Alessi (“The House of Happiness”) Crusinallo (Italy), 1980-1988; Clock Tower, Gibellina (Italy), 1987; and Ambra Dolce Design Gallery, Milan, (Italy), 1993.

-MORE- Outside of Italy, Mendini designed Torre Paradiso, Hiroshima (Japan), 1988; Groninger Museum, Groningen (The Netherlands), 1988-1994; Dinosaur at Hukui - Dinosaur Museum, Katsuyama (Japan), 2000; Posco, Seoul (Korea), 2013; Triennale di Milano – Branch in Incheon (Korea), 2009; Busstop Hannover – Steintor Stop, Hannover (Germany), 1992; Madsack Publishing Company Headquarters, Hannover (Germany); Galleria Mendini, Lörrach (Germany), 2004; and numerous other buildings in Europe, the USA and Asia.

Mendini also has been an urban planning consultant for a number of cities in South Korea; and in 2007, he designed a new Trade Fair District in the City of Incheon, followed by the new Triennale di Milano – Branch in Incheon (Korea), 2009.

Among the most important recent projects are the Galerie Tumringerstrasse, Lörrach (Germany), 2004; the Renovation of the Facade of the “Casino Arosa” Arosa, Switzerland 1998; Fondazione Maghetti – Redevelopment of a District in Lugano (Switzerland), 1998; the Scuola del Mosaico, Spilimbergo, (Italy); Museo del Casalingo- Forum Omegna (Multifunctional Park with Museum), Omegna (Italy), 1996; and the Urban Renovation of the Historic “Parco della Villa Comunale,” Naples (Italy), 1999.

For decades, Alessandro Mendini has played the most pivotal role in the development of contemporary Italian design, mostly as publisher of the magazines Casabella (1970-1976), Modo (1979-1985), Domus (1980-1985 and 2010-2011), and Ollo (1988). For many years following his architectural studies, Mendini was the principal theoretician of the Italian avant-garde design and its most important trend-setter.

In 1976, he was among the first members of the legendaryStudio Alchimia, founded by Alessandro Guerriero. Studio Alchima was a gallery for experimental work, not constrained creatively by industrial production and mocked the scientific rational behind Modernism. Mendini became the movement’s leading exponent and L’enfant terrible, together with , Andrea Branzi, Paola Navone, and . During this period, he designed furniture that revolutionized the image of Italian design and questioned the position of the until then undisputed “Bella Design” from Italy. As a result, the bourgeois categories of Good Design and kitsch were challenged and reversed.

Together with other Italian designers, he developed the so-called “banal design,” transforming everyday objects through innovative colors and forms into new, ironic objects of design. Mendini called this transformation “re- design.”

As early as 1978, he subjects a series of famous seats and chairs to such a transformation. In doing so, he reveals the classics of modern furniture design to be period furniture for the modern intellectual : Marcel Breuers’s

-MORE- Wassilij Chair (1978; Kandissi Sofa (1979); Poltrona di Proust (1978); and Redesign Thonet (1979).

Already during the Studio Alchimia era, Mendini also begins focusing on painting and literature.

Mendini has acted as a catalyst of the international avant-garde design, especially with his epoch-making work, the “Infinite Furniture,” as well as when he realised the “La Casa della Felicità” for Alberto Alessi. Mendini saw his task in convincing architects and designers with seemingly incompatible attitudes towards design to collaborate on a project.

In 1989, Mendini founds the Studio Mendini together with his brother Francesco. Together they conduct theoretical studies, as well as working on highly successful, concrete design and architecture commissions. Among these are over one hundred Swatch shops, new stores for Alessi and showrooms for Bisazza world-wide.

Among his numerous architectural designs, the Groninger Museum and the Paradise Tower in Hiroshima are the most outstanding. With both buildings, the typical Mendini teamwork is clearly visible: the projects are realised not alone, but rather in co-operation with the most varied guest-architects.

For the Groningen Museum, Mendini collaborated with Philippe Starck and Coop Himmelb(l)au in the design of three main museum pavilions in 1994.

His design has always been characterized by his strong interest in mixing different cultures and different forms of expression; and as a result, he creates graphics, furniture, interiors, paintings, and architecture simultaneously. Mendini has also worked as a design consultant for many of the world’s leading manufacturers and design brands, including Alessi, Royal Philips B.V., Cartier, Hermés, Venini, Swarovski, Swatch, and Bisazza.

His collabortion with Alessi’s Dream Factory is the most celebrated where the architect-designer has produced many of Alessi’s most iconic design products: 100% Make Up, 1992; Anna Box; 1996; Anna G. Corkscrew, 1994: Din-Don Champagne Flute, 2004; Anna Gong Folding Cake Stand, 2011; Moka Alessi, 2011; Parrot Corkscrew, 2014; and Pinocchio Corkscrew, 2013.

Royal Philips B.V. hired Mendini to create appliances aimed at the European mass-market: Philips by Alessi (Coffee Pot, Tea Pot, Juicer, and Toaster), 1994.

Additionally, Mendini has designed products for other leading Italian and European manufactures: Mamoli Robinetteria SpA., Abet Laminati SpA., Glas Italia, Artemide SpA., and Severs SpA.

-MORE- “Alessandro Mendini has represented a sea of change in the culture of the project, from design to architecture,” states the Milan-based design critic and journalist, Claudia Donà.

“He is the Father of Radical Design and Neo-Modern; first with the direction of the magazine Casabella, then by creating Modo magazine (where I first met him), and finally with Domus. Alessandro Mendini has caused a real earthquake for cultural change. He repositioned Italian design in the role of the international avant-garde for the mutations of taste. Through exhibitions, writings, drawings, the direction of magazines, and epic projects, he was able to concentrate around his innovative ideas as the most revolutionary mind of both architecture and design.”

“A personality like Mendini is rare in Italy, in Europe, and perhaps, in the world,” continues Donà. “His persona is very current, very contemporary, and as extraordinary as is his humanity and the way he relates to others through his work. The European Prize of Architecture awarded to Mendini is with great wisdom, insight, and vision.”

After the Presentation Ceremony in Milan, an exhibition on the works of Mendini is scheduled to open at The European Centre’s Contemporary Space Athens (74 Mitropoleos Str., Athens, Greece) in February and continues through March 2015.

After Athens, the exhibition will tour Europe and the United States opening at the Third Chicago Architecture Biennial in September, 2015.

A catalogue on Alessando Mendini on the occasion of the European Prize for Architecture is authored by Claudia Donà and published by Metropolitan Arts Press and is available through The European Centre.

For more information and press photographs contact: Ira Livadioti at [email protected]

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