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Experts pushing the global design envelope.

- Tina Thakrar

Merging colours and cultures, Italian architects, icons and brothers Alessandro and Francesco Mendini of Atelier Mendini consider the built environment as a radical form of expression

The Mendini brothers are, in their own words, “two Milanese architects born into a microclimate” when innovation and quality was developing in Italy. It was in the post World War II era, when a number of brilliant young architects and small enlightened industrialists were being born, great craftsmanship was gaining recognition, and platforms like Domus and Casabella magazines, and the Triennale di Milano was being rooted.

As the industry began to see highs and lows and international hybridisations, young brothers Alessandro and Francesco Mendini were developing an interest in architecture and art, owing to their maternal grandfather, who was a builder, an engineer and a collector of modern art. Growing up, the brothers took their own paths, that eventually led to the same destination. Alessandro graduated from the architecture school at Milan Polytechnic and then went on to work with Marcus Rizzoli, where he was soon followed by Francesco.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Alessandro joined architects Ettore Sottsass and Michele de Lucchi as partner in Studio Alchimia. Besides straying from modernism, the firm’s main utopia was stylistic; to radically renew the visual language of objects. He soon followed it up by setting up Domus Academy, an institute for design in Milan. During this period, Francesco independently worked on multiple architecture projects, concentrating on the industrialisation and engineering of construction.