Andrea Branzi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Andrea Branzi (1938 – 2023) was an Italian architect, designer, and academic.
Author of essays and books such as The Hot House (1984), he has played an important role in the cultural debate that followed the development and success of Italian design.
As a designer he worked with Archizoom and the Memphis Group, and he has collaborated with the leading Italian furniture and accessory manufacturers, the latest being Alessi.
Life and career
Branzi studied as an architect at the Florence School of Architecture. He received his degree in 1966, then founded Archizoom Associati with Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi in 1966 in Florence where they developed the No-Stop City. In 1976, he established Studio Alchimia and in the 1980s began to associate with the Memphis Group. Branzi also served as the cultural director of Domus Academy, Italy’s first postgraduate design school, for its first ten years. His design works are included in permanent collections of museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, and the ADI Design Museum in Milan.
Branzi died on 9 October 2023, at the age of 84.
Awards and honors
In 1979, Andrea Branzi was awarded the prestigious Italian industrial design award Compasso d'Oro.
In 2005, Branzi received his second Compasso d'Oro Award.
In 2008, he was named an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry in the UK.
On 15 October 2018, he was awarded the Rolf Schock Prizes by the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.