Ettore Sottsass was an architect, writer, artist and designer born in Inssbrück in 1917 and died in Milan in 2007. Graduated from the Politechnic University of Turin in 1939, Sottsass was the founder of the anti-design and later on, together with Aldo Cibic, Matteo Thun and Marco Zanini, cofounder of the Memphis movement. This movement believed in the importance of the social and cultural value of the object, as well as its esthetic function. The design was characterized by irony, kitsch, bright colors and change of scale to undermine the functional value of the object and question the conceptions about taste and good design. In 1983, Ettore Sottsass and Marco Zanini were invited to create an environment in the framework of an exhibition in Tokyo, dedicated to Italian design. Their idea was to create an environment that was dedicated to the theme of decoration. The project for an Arab bathroom, was the pretext for freely experimenting with the architectural possibilities of the decorated tiles, the decorative use of the laminate in wall coverings and the combination of different finishes. The idea was to have walls that were solid colors in practice, but with special vibrations, ie a movement to support the color unit, lifted by the light.

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Authors:

Lauren Overlaet

Farah De Schutter

Iva Georgieva