Born in Innsbruck in 1917, he graduated from the Turin Politecnico in 1939. After having worked for a few yearswith his father, Ettore Sottsass sr, an important figure in Italian architecture before the war, in 1947 he set up his own architectural and design partnership in Milan. In 1958 he began his collaboration with Olivetti as a design consultant, in force of which he was later awarded four ‘Compasso d’Oro’. For Olivetti, he designed the first Italian electronic computer (Elea, 1959) and many calculating systems and typewriters, among which Praxis, Tekne and Valentina, now part of the permanent collections of museums such as the MOMA of New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. From 1957, as the artistic consultant for Poltronova (Agliana), Sottsass designed pieces of furnitures that foreran the experiments of Radical Architecture. In the same years, he also began his research on ceramics: a research on colour and materials, and figurative languages, that he would always pursue, alongside with the rest of his architectural and design realisations and experiments. From the end of the Fifties, Sottsass’ role as the fundamental innovator of the language of contemporary design was acknowledged, also internationally, with his participation in exhibitions in the most prestigious museums around the world. During the ‘Radical’ years, he took active part in the thoretical debate. He was one of the protagonists of the exhibition “Italy.  The New Domestic Landscape”, in 1972. he was one of the founders of Alchimia, a workshop of research on design that wanted to put into practice the theoretical investigations carried out during the ‘Radical’ years. In 1981, with young designers and internationally renowned architects, Sottsass founded the ‘Memphis’ group, to become the symbol of ‘new design’ all over the world. Many are his writings and, in more recent years, his photographic books. With the foundation of Sottsass Associati in 1980 (with Zanini, Thun and Cibic) hs activity as an architect increased; his buildings are to be found in Japan, China, United States, besides Italy and Europe. Awarded a degree honoris causa by the Royal College of Art, London, he has received awards and prizes from the most important institutions in the world of art, architecture and design.