Designers

Emilio Ambasz

He was born in 1943 in Argentina and studied architecture at Princeton University. From 1970 to 1976 he was a designer at the Modern Art Museum in New York. In 1976 and in 1985 he won the International Prize of Progressive Architecture. Currently he has exhibitions in both The Art Institutes of Philadelphia and Chicago.

Ron Arad

He was born in Israel in 1951 to a family of artists. His mother was a painter and his father was a photographer. He attended the Academy of Art in Jerusalem until the seventies when he decided to leave his country and study architecture in the United Kingdom. In addition to his talent for architecture he developed a string interest in tools of design and the unconventional use of them. He explored the use of molded foam and aluminum, which was used in the aerospace industry. One of his best-know models is the Tom Vac chair.

Mario Bellini

This famous Italian was born in 1935 and studied architecture at the Politécnico of Milán. Since 1978 he has been a design consultant and investigation for Renault. Some of his designs include the Ypsilon and the Bellini chairs.

Harry Bertoia

Known as a sculptor and designer of furniture, Harry Bertoia was born in Italy in 1915. In 1937 he worked as a professor in the Cranbook Art Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In 1952 Knoll Associates presented the world with the Bertoia furniture collection. This Italian with Ray Eames performed the first experiments with seats made of plywood. Some of his many prizes include gold medal given by the American Institute of Architects and the gold medal awarded by the New York League of

Architects. Bertoia died in 1978 in Los Angeles.

Mario Botta

He was born in Switzerland in 1943 and studied at the Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura in Venice, Italy, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts of Milán. Some of his most fascinating designs are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art of New York.

Antonio Citterio

He was born in Italy in 1950 and studied architecture at the Politécnico of Milán. He has designed for the prestigious design firms of Vitra y Kartell. Some of his models are the T Chair, the Visavis, the Axess and the Ad Hoc office collection.

Niels Diffrient

He was born in the United States in 1928. His studies of aeronautical engineering and art served as a springboard for the creation of the Freedom model, the most ergonomic and comfortable chair in the world.

Charles & Ray Eames

Charles Eames was born in Missouri , U.S.A, in 1907. He studied architecture at Washington University . At the early age of 23 he opened his own firm and in 1937 he first got in contact with Eero Saarinen, another renown designer of the time.

In 1940 Charles won first prize at the “Organic Design of Home Furniture” competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA).

He married Ray Kaiser in 1941 and since that year, along with Ray Eames, started experimenting with a little known material at the time: laminate wood.

The Eames' prolific career spanned , amongst others, the fields of architecture, furniture design, photography, movies, and graphic design. In 1964 they were both awarded an honorary degree given by New York 's Pratt Institute.

Charles Eames died in 1978 . Ray Kaiser died 10 years to the day after Charles.

©  2005 EAMES OFFICE LLC.

Frank O. Gehry

He was born in 1929 in Toronto, Canada. He studied architecture at the University of Southern California and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1962 he started his opened his own architecture studio in Los Angeles. He has completed some very important architectural projects including the Vitra Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Gehry designed the famous Little Beaver, constructed completely with corrugated cardboard.

Arne Jacobsen

This Danish architect and designer was born in 1902. At the end of the 1950s he designed the Hotel Royal in Denmark and adorned the prestigious corridor of the hotel with three of his works: The Egg chair, the Swan chair, the Swan sofa y the Series 3300.

Jacobsen died in 1971 and currently his work is on display in the Modern Art Museum of Louisiana.

Hans Sandgren Jakobsen

Born 7 August 1963 in Denmark . He is one of the Danish designers who in no time has made a name of himself in the sphere of Danish furniture design.

He challenges timelessness and tries to make our traditional thinking take a new turn. In spite of his young age the list of furniture branded, Design Hans Sandgren Jakobsen is already long. He has won several prestigious awards and recognition for his screen wall, Viper, available in cardboard as well as in aluminium .

Shiro Kuramata

This Japanese artist was born in y his work consisted of the transformation of industrial materials (for example steel cable and corrugated aluminum) into objects of poetic beauty.

Based on the Japanese aesthetic traditions he combined the concept of unity of arts with his fascination for contemporary occidental culture giving way to the new term, “The Ephemeral.” This produced a floating and free sensation by the transparent use of light. In 1984 Shiro Kuramata designed the interior of the Issey Miyake boutiques in New York, Paris and Tokyo.

Kuramata died in 1991 and still is known for his creations including “How High The Moon”, which belongs to the Vitra Collection.

Vico Magistretti

He was born in 1920 in Milán. He studied architecture at the Politécnico in Milán and has won numerous international awards among which the Grand Prix. When speaking of Magistretti we should mention the different versions of the Maui chair.

Alberto Meda

He was born at the end of World War II in 1945. He did not study design or architecture, but he developed as a mechanical engineer and was a designer of the prestigious Alfa Romeo line of cars. Two of his best-known designs are the Meda chair and the Big Frame.

Ludwing Mies van der Rohe

Maybe one of the world’s best-known architects, Mies van der Rohe was born in Germany in 1886. Known as “the father” of steel and glass van der Rohe directed the Bauhaus before the rise of Nazi Germany. In the United States he directed the Architecture College at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1959 he put an explanation point on his career with the famous Seagram Building in New York y la Neue Nationalgalerie of Berlín. With these works he maintained horizontalism in his European architecture work and verticalism in his U.S. work. He died in 1969 in Chicago. One of his most famous furniture works was the Barcelona chair.

Jasper Morrison

Morrison was born in 1959 in London and even though his original formation was in art he started to develop his own work in design as well. In 1987 he designed Reuters' News Center located in “Documenta 8”, Kassel.

In 1993 The Museum of Applied Art in Vienna showed his work.

Some of his creations are the Morrison sofa and the Ply Chair.

Verner Panton

Denmark saw him born in 1926 and die in 1998. He studied in the Royal Academy of Danish Fine and in 1960 created the Panton chair: which was the first chair molded by plastic injection that lacks rear legs. This chair signified a giant change in design of furniture and currently is still considered appropriate for both inside or outside use.

Jean Prouvé

“I emerged to a world of artists and erudites, a world that consumed my mind.”

Designer of furniture and French architect, Jean Prouvé was born in París in 1901 and died in the city of Nancy in 1984. Along with the ideals and energy of his father, Victor, Jean Prouvé fused in his works a relation between art and industry with out losing family ties and a social consciousness.

In 1930 he was a founding member of The Union of Modern Artists (U.A.M.) whose motto was “We like logic, balance and purity.”

Among his most know architecture works lies the “Maison du Peuple in Clichy, París”. And for furniture he is known for the Anthony Chair, the EM Table y the Cité Armchair.

Philippe Starck

He was born in Paris in 1949 and currently is the integral part of the international jet set of design. Starck won the competition of furniture called La Vilette in 1965. In 1969 he was the director of the Pierre Cardin art studio, where he produced 65 furniture models. In 1979 he founded his own manufacturing company called Productos Starck.

He was also an interior designer and in 1982 was elected to design the private apartment of the president of France, Francois Miterrand, in the Elysee Palace. He has developed furniture for Vitra and in his works there is an obvious demonstration of his love for technology and futuristic styles. It s not a coincidence that many of his furniture names have been used in science fiction novels. Some of his works with chairs include W.W. Stool, Cam el eon, Louis 20, Dr. No and La Marie.

Maarten Van Severen

He was born in Belgium in 1956. This young designer has won numerous international awards which include the “Intérieur 92” (Design for Europe); Award for Industrial Design at the Hanover Festival, in Germany and the Award for Design by the Flemish Government, in 1998.

Additionally, his work has been shown at the Art Museum of Belgium and the Vitra Museum of Design in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

Some of his creations are the chair .03, the chair .04 and the MVS Chaise.