Alessi Bottle Opener

Alessandro Mendini was born in Milan in 1931. Through his work as an architect, designer, journalist, theorist and publisher, Mendini helped establish the Italian design sensibility on a global scale with a particular focus on neo-modern, avant-garde design as well as the crossover between art, design and architecture.

Mendini’s influential work spanned the arenas of graphics, furniture, interiors, architecture, stage design, writing and painting. He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1959, and he began his career at the studio of artist-designer Marcello Nizzoli. He went on to become the publisher of the popular magazines Casabella (1970–76), Modo and Domus (each 1979–85).

In 1979, Mendini joined Ettore Sottsass and Michele de Lucchi as a partner at Studio Alchimia, a harbinger of the Memphis Group before he cofounded Domus Academy in 1982. In 1989, he and his brother Francesco established their architectural practice, Atelier Mendini, in Milan, where he worked until his death in February 2019. In recognition of his outstanding body of work, Mendini was awarded the Compasso d’Oro twice, in 1979 and 1981. He was also honored by the Architectural League of New York, made Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France, and, in 2014, he was awarded the European Prize for Architecture.

Mendini’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others.

Find vintage Alessandro Mendini chairs, vases, table lamps and other furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by STUDIO CADMIUM)

Arguably the world’s most ubiquitous man-made material, plastic has impacted nearly every industry. In contemporary spaces, new and vintage plastic furniture is quite popular and its use pairs well with a range of design styles.

From the Italian lighting artisans at Fontana Arte to venturesome Scandinavian modernists such as Verner Panton, who created groundbreaking interiors as much as he did seating — see his revolutionary Panton chair — to contemporary multidisciplinary artists like Faye Toogood, furniture designers have been pushing the boundaries of plastic forever.

When The Graduate's Mr. McGuire proclaimed, “There’s a great future in plastics,” it was more than a laugh line. The iconic quote is an allusion both to society’s reliance on and its love affair with plastic. Before the material became an integral part of our lives — used in everything from clothing to storage to beauty and beyond — people relied on earthly elements for manufacturing, a process as time-consuming as it was costly.

Soon after American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, which could mimic luxury products like tortoiseshell and ivory, production hit fever pitch, and the floodgates opened for others to explore plastic’s full potential. The material altered the history of design — mid-century modern legends Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen regularly experimented with plastics in the development of tables and chairs, and today plastic furnishings and decorative objects are seen as often indoors as they are outside.

Find vintage plastic lounge chairs, outdoor furniture, lighting and more on 1stDibs.