Sottsass Olivetti Synthesis

The book we want to talk about this month, selected from the texts in our library, is clearly chosen to pay a tribute to Ettore Sottsass and celebrate him year one hundred years after its birth.

Sottsass Olivetti Synthesis is actually the catalog of the 2016 exhibition in Venice where were exhibited the office furnishings that Sottsass designed in 1972 for the Synthesis company in Massa Carrara at the request of Adriano Olivetti.

The exhibition was set up inside the famous Olivetti shop in Piazza San Marco, one of the greatest expressions of the genius of Carlo Scarpa. This, of course, represents a synthesis of quality and extraordinary abilities.

The shop contrast to the revolutionary vitality of the Synthesis furniture, their loud colors and their playful shapes. Breaking in tradition!

Since the ’60s has changed the organization and the the way to work in the office from here comes the need to redefine the workplace and furnishings. Sottsass, motivated by the revolutionary ideas of Adriano Olivetti, responds to this need by creating the Synthesis 45 line. The office becomes a free landscape and the production environment becomes more stimulating and positive.

The focus is on simple shapes, the functionality of the objects, and their modularity, which make possible to customize the furnishing compositions. The 45 Series has just been identified as a complete set of office furniture, certainly innovative, very stylish, refined and rigorous.

“I tried to catch, how I could, a new vitality and to achieve the shapes, the symbols that could represent the multiplication of images of the Century and the transition from intellectual organizations to a kind of pure vital energy “.

Ettore Sottsass