Riccardo Rinaldi

A giant of design and architecture, the unparalleled creator of the Paimio sanatorium, the Savoy vase, and the designer par excellence of the curve, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is a national monument for Finland, the equivalent of Picasso for Spain and Joyce for Ireland.An architect of perception, emotion and inspiration, Aalto championed the spontaneity of energy flows and placed nature at the centre of his reflections. An introductory essay and an unpublished text by the architect himself retrace his human and professional stages: his first approach to drawing under his father's project table; his studies in Helsinki; his imagination influenced by national romanticism as well as by Finnish and Italian nature; his adhesion to functionalism and his final landing place in organic architecture. A path travelled together with his life and work companions, Aino and Elissa.

Architect, designer and photographer, Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) left a profound mark on the international design scene with his unmistakable visual vocabulary, made up of unprecedented combinations of materials and unprejudiced research into colour.After his prolific association with Olivetti, he became an avant-garde icon in the 1980s with the Memphis Group, before devoting himself entirely to architecture. His indispensable freedom, in work as in life, is accompanied by an insatiable curiosity that leads him to explore places and cultures, instilling the same enthusiasm in all his collaborators. A rich introduction by Emmanuel Berard and a self-portrait written and drawn by Sottsass himself, together with photographs and projects, restore the fascinating and restless creative path of a great master of Italian design, still a reference point for new generations.