Michele De Lucchi
architect, founder of AMDL CIRCLE, and guest of honor at Orticolario 2024
“They are the ones who take care of the landscape, who make it beautiful, fresh, and natural. They don’t even know what ugly means. Everything they do is beautiful, original, and authentic. They never make mistakes and know how to transform the dirtiest and most disordered corner into a piece of earthly paradise.” 1
They are the trees, and to say so Michele De Lucchi, architect, designer, founder of AMDL CIRCLE, and guest of honor at Orticolario 2024
He will be awarded with the “Per un Giardinaggio Evoluto” prize during the fourteenth edition.
Just a brief paragraph in an ocean of architectures, objects, words, and thoughts. Everything signed by De Lucchi leads in one direction: the relationship with what surrounds us. Objects and architectures are conceived not as isolated islands but as part of an ever-interacting whole, respectful of the environment they are placed in. His vision has never been invasive or imposing, but attentive and kind, as if listening to what is happening.
Michele De Lucchi, born in Ferrara in 1951 but soon moved to Milan, is one of the undisputed protagonists of Italian architecture and design. Among the “animators” of movements such as Cavart, Alchymia, and Memphis during the years of radical and experimental architecture, he has won the Compasso d’Oro award twice, along with other prestigious awards, and has designed numerous buildings and exhibition setups, crossing sectors and cultures that are light-years away. He’s a strong supporter of artisanal techniques and crafts and, with Produzione Privata, he designs products without commissions. Some of the design elements that have set benchmarks and made history include the First Chair for Memphis, the Tolomeo (in collaboration with Giancarlo Fassina) and Castore lamps for Artemide, the Vegan tables (with Davide Angeli), the Briccolone for Riva 1920 with the woods of the Venice Briccole, and the Pulcina moka for Alessi.
In his architectures – he is the founder of the AMDL CIRCLE studio – he favors natural materials and, if possible, stays well away from concrete. He feels the urgency and necessity to rethink the spaces we live in to make them part of a broader whole, capable of respecting the ecosystem’s life cycle. In this regard, Satellite Stations: small spaces built of wood, sourced from nature and ready to return to it.
To nature. Not flaunted in his projects but a silent muse. Just like the trees, always present in various forms. Nature, trees, and imagination. Thus, among the poems he collected in 2018, the year he was Guest Editor of Domus, Bruno Munari‘s poem (from Fenomeni bifronti, 1993) could not be missing:
TREE
The slowest explosion
Of a seed
Ph. Giovanni Gastel
Ph. Giulio Boem
Bio
Architect.
He was one of the key figures in Alchimia and Memphis. He designed furniture for some of the most renowned Italian and European companies.
He served as Head of Design at Olivetti from 1988 to 2002. He has completed architectural projects in Italy and around the world, including cultural, commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. For Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bundesbahn, Enel, Poste Italiane, Hera, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, and other Italian and international institutions, he has designed work environments and corporate identities. He has also designed buildings and exhibition systems for museums such as the Triennale di Milano, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, the Neues Museum in Berlin, and the Gallerie d’Italia.
In 2000, he was awarded the honor of Officer of the Italian Republic by President Ciampi. In 2001, he was appointed Full Professor at IUAV in Venice. In 2006, he received an Honorary Degree from Kingston University. Since 2008, he has been a Full Professor at the Faculty of Design at the Politecnico di Milano and an Academician at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome. In 2018, he was the Guest Editor of the magazine “Domus.” In 2022, he was awarded the Compasso d’Oro for Lifetime Achievement.
Michele De Lucchi is the founder and part of AMDL CIRCLE.
At Orticolario 2024
IL GIARDINO DELL’IMPERMANENZA
Michele De Lucchi with Produzione Privata
ALPINA
Michele De Lucchi
ARCHITETTURA FERTILE
Michele De Lucchi and AMDL CIRCLE
¹ Loro che sono l’oro, Michele De Lucchi (published by Corraini, 2017)
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