Alessi - Pulcina espresso coffee maker
Designed by Michele De Lucchi, the Plissé kettle combines functional aspects with a fascinating plastic design that reveals the architect’s training, as well as his passions for craftsmanship and sculpture. Like a fabric that a thick pleating transforms into a three-dimensional object, this kettle is reminiscent of a haute couture dress, a beautiful object to leave in sight on a kitchen top.
Michele De Lucchi
One of the leading exponents of architecture and contemporary design, De Lucchi is famous worldwide for his innovative products, so much so that one of his most famous works, the Tolomeo lamp, is still one of the best-selling lamps in the world. Architect Michele De Lucchi was born in Ferrara in 1951. After graduating in architecture in Florence became an assistant in the Faculty. In those years he collaborated with Adolfo Natalini and founded the Cavart group, a cultural project inspired by the ideals of radical design. In the 1980s, Michele De Lucchi in Milan met Ettore Sottsass and became part of the Memphis Group and later approached the world of Olivetti, with which he collaborated until 2002, getting closer to the world of product design. In 1990, De Lucchi founded Produzione Privata, his experimental workshop where he used artisanal techniques to create products free from commissioning, created to give continuity to the Memphis Group. Michele De Lucchi has received numerous awards during his career, including the Compasso d'Oro Prize, the honor of Officer of the Republic in 2000, and an honorary degree from Kingston University in 2006. Since 2008, Michele De Lucchi has been teaching at the Politecnico di Milano Faculty of Design, and between 2017 and 2018 he was the editor of Domus magazine founded by Gio Ponti.
Alessi founded in 1921 as a Workshop for the processing of brass and nickel-silver plates, with foundry, it is recognized for the high quality of its products In nearly a century of history it has gradually evolved to become a leading exponent of the "Factories of Italian design". The Company is open to change and international development and also deeply rooted in the tradition and cultural background of its territory. Alessi continues to be synonymous with craft objects made with the help of machines. Today Alessi’s goal is to translate the search for the most advanced cultural, aesthetic, executive and functional quality into the industrial production series.The design product stems from the constant search for mediation between art and industry, between the "Immensity of the Creative Possible" and the needs of the market. The company’s commitment is to constantly work on a boundary line, balancing the most advanced expressions of creativity with the needs of the audience. Alessi has been called a "dream factory". Indeed, through its products it aspires to make its contribution to responding to a desire for people's happiness, to the need for Art and Poetry common to all people.