Andréa Branzi

Andrea Branzi is an Italian architect and designer best known for his nature-inspired furniture, industrial objects, and sculpture. His whimsical, conceptual pieces pit organic material against artificial in delicate, ergonomic harmony. Born on November 30, 1938 in Florence, Italy, Branzi attended the Florence School of Architecture, gaining a degree there in 1966 before founding the radical design studio Archizoom Associati with peers Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi, and Gilberto Coretti. A leader in the Italian Radical Architecture movement, Branzi's experimental and conceptual work has garnered considerable attention and acclaim, highlighted by such achievements as a 1987 and 1995 Compasso d'oro award and being named an Honorary Royal Designer by the United Kingdom in 2008. Currently living and working in Milan, Italy, Branzi once explained: "Today, in order to create a new architecture and new urban spaces, it is necessary to begin further upstream: one has to plunge one’s hands into that vast planktonic soup of products, technologies, pictures, signs, and data which make up the artificial universe in which man is completely immersed.”