Alessandro Mendini completed his degree in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1959 and became a partner of the Milan-based design and architectural studio Nizzoli Associati the following year. In 1970 Mendini became the editor of the architecture and design magazine Casabella. From 1971 to – 75 he designed objects for Bracciodiferro, an experimental workshop set up by Cassina. Mendini was one of the co-founders of the Global Tools collective in 1973, consisting of 30 artists, architects, critics all involved in the Radical Design movement. Five years later he was the founding editor of Modo, a Milan-based design and architectural magazine.
Together with Adriana Guerriero and Ettore Sottsass, Mendini founded the Studio Alchimia in Milan 1976 and two years later he initiated the series Redesign di sedie del movimento for the studio. The series consisted of re-designd furniture classics such as Gio Ponti’s Superleggera chair as well as anonymously produced furniture like the Proust lounge chair, that was called Poltrona di Proust after Mendinis re-designed it.
In 1979 Mendini was awarded a Compasso d’Oro for his lifetime achievement as a designer. During the early part of the 1980’s Mendini curated the Studio Alchimia exhibition L’ogetto banale (eng. The Banal Object) at the Venice Biennale (1980), edited the Domus magazine (1980 – 85), co-founded the Domus Academy in Milan (1982), and directed the Tea and Coffee Piazza projects for Alessi while also teaching at the College of Applied Arts in Vienna (1983). In 1981 Mendini designed the Cipriani cabinet for the first Memphis collection.
From 1987 to -94, Mendini was the leading architect for the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, seen as one of the most prominent postmodern of the later 20th century where he in 1988 was the subject of a retrospective exhibition. Other buildins by Mendini are the Alessi residence in Omegna, and the Paradise Tower in Hiroshima (together with Yumiko Kabayashi).
In 1989, Mendini founded the Atelier Mendini together with his brother Francesco that a.o. worked in the Milan metro. In 2010- 11 Mendini was the editor of the Domus magazine for the second time while also being the subject of the retrospective exhibition Alessandro Mendini – Wunderkammer Design at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg. Alessandro Mendini passed away in 2019 at the age of 87. He is represented as a furniture designer at a.o. the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Vitra Design Museum in Wiel am Rhein.
