Of course, someone will certainly say that comparing two venerable architects, each of whom became a symbol of his era, is rather ungrateful: there will always be voices of supporters of one or the other, who give their arguments pro et contra. But the more diverse these figures are, the more interesting it is to find connections, draw parallels, explore their creative approach, and analyze their way of thinking.
Ettore Sottsass in 1973
Let's start with the fact that they are both Italian. Sottsass is "the same age as the revolution", he was born in Austria, in Innsbruck, where his family lived at the time. Piano was born 20 years later, when Italy was still a kingdom, in Genoa, in the family of a builder. One is called the "patriarch of Italian design", and the other, together with Foster and Rogers, "the father of hi-tech".
Renzo Piano in his workshop in Paris, May 2015
Both, we can say, continuers of family traditions. Sottsass followed the path of his father, the famous functionalist architect Sottsass Sr., graduating from the Technical University of Turin, but all the following years he persistently tried to undermine the foundations of modernism, putting its main principle - functionality - on the back burner.
A private home in Hawaii built by Sottsass in 1991 for designer Adrian Olabuenaga and his wife Leslie Bailey (Acme Studio)
Ettore Sottsass: "As a child, functionalism was talked about endlessly around me. It annoyed me. I am convinced that design - both industrial and architectural - should be not only useful, but also exciting, sensual. That is why I use bright colors in all my works - they awaken the imagination and please the eye."
Legendary Carlton shelf, wood, laminate, Memphis Milano, 1981.
Renzo Piano's father and brother were engaged in the construction business, and Renzo himself, despite the status of an architectural star, considers himself an average worker and a supporter of patriarchal family values. In a conversation with journalists, Renzo Piano once said: "I am a craftsman, the son of a craftsman and I want to die a craftsman."
Renzo Piano. The tallest skyscraper in Europe is The London Bridge Tower, also known as the Shard, London, 2000-2012. Photo: Michel Denancé
Sottsass is a radical avant-garde and innovator who favors simple geometric shapes, bright colors and an ironic, almost childlike, direct style. Renzo is also a great experimenter and innovator. After graduating from the Milan Polytechnic, he defended his thesis on modular coordination under the supervision of professor and engineer Giuseppe Chiribini, the founder of the discipline "architectural technology", and engaged in the development of experimental lightweight structures.
Architectural icon - Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, 1971-1977. Designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers
Sottsass spent most of his life working in industrial design, returning to architecture in adulthood. He transferred his principles of ironic, cheerful, colorful design to her, while categorically rejecting glass and steel as materials for building buildings: "I don't build symbols of power - big houses and skyscrapers. My architecture is intimate, I work for people, not for official institutions. I have done only one large public project — the interiors of Malpensa Airport in Milan."
A fragment of a private house in the state of Colorado known as the "Wolf House", 1989. One of the most characteristic buildings of Sottsas
Piano, on the contrary, made glass, steel and concrete its main materials, starting a new architectural trend. Recently, by the way, Piano also got involved in object design, translating his building design principles to it, as in the case, for example, with a rack for the Riva 1920 furniture brand.
A shelf designed by Renzo Piano for the Italian furniture brand Riva 1920
"Architecture, you know, is such a profession - no matter how idealistic you are, you are still a desperate materialist. Here you have allegories, symbols, and there you have concrete, ventilation and bathrooms." - Renzo Piano
Georges Pompidou Center — project drawing
In 1971, Piano, together with the equally young and daring Richard Rogers - both then in their early 30s - won the competition to build the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris. For the first time, all functional elements — reinforcing joints, escalators, elevators, pipes — were brought outside the building and made in different colors. Today, this multi-industry "cultural factory" with an area of 100 sq. m. m is recognized as a "high-tech icon", and the very year of its appearance is considered the year of the birth of the architectural style.
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers on the steps of the Center Georges Pompidou, 1988. Archive image presented at the exhibition dedicated to the authors of the Center and timed to the 40th anniversary of the cultural center, 2017-2018. © Archives Center Pompidou photo
Ten years later, in 1981, Sottsass founded, together with Adrea Branzi and Michele de Lucchi, the legendary design group Memphis, named after the Bob Dylan song of the same name. Its members, mocking traditional design, began to develop funny, colorful and, at the same time, low-functional things. The main idea is creativity for the sake of creativity and no dictates of industry. Becoming a harbinger of the era of postmodernism, Memphis initiated such a phenomenon as "name design", forever separating mass and designer products.
Pilastro stool and other items of the Kartell goes Sottsass capsule collection of the cult Italian brand
Ettore Sottsass himself lived a bright 90 years, leaving behind a grandiose legacy, which today is mostly the property of the world's most famous museums. His 100th birthday was widely celebrated last year, including a lavish exhibition of the master's work, including all his architecture, at La Triennale di Milano, and the Stedelijk Museum's-Hertogenbosch in Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, organized the exhibition Celebrating Ceramics - 100 years Ettore Sottsass to celebrate the contribution a master in the making of Dutch design.
Fragment of the exhibition Celebrating Ceramics — 100 years Ettore Sottsass, Museum of Contemporary Art Stedelijk Museum's-Hertogenbosch, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Renzo Piano turned 81 this year, and exactly 20 years ago he became a laureate of the Pritzker Prize. So far, the architect has completed the Paris Court House, is building the headquarters of the Paris Bar Association Maison de l'Ordre des Avocats (MOdA) in the French capital and the Beirut History Museum in Lebanon. Moreover, at the beginning of September, he already presented the project of the new Morandi bridge, which will be built on the site of the viaduct that tragically collapsed in mid-August in his native Genoa. This is an important mission for him.
Paris Court. Photo: Sergio Grazia © RPBW
"In addition, I am a life member of the Italian senate, and therefore one of my duties is to somehow respond to the disaster," says Piano. "A simple and restrained bridge, definitely economical, in the character of the Genoese. It will be white, capable of absorbing solar energy during the day using special panels to then glow at night. So much light, but without special effects that would be inappropriate," said the author at the presentation of his project.
