encircling the square

Carlton Bookcase
Ettore Sottsass desenhou. Desaparecido em Janeiro deste ano,
responsável pelo "mau-gosto" do Memphis Group dos anos oitenta: 

from 'poltronova' to 'olivetti' to 'memphis' to your latest works with
sottass associati, can you give us an idea of the evolution of your philosophy?
at the beginning, when I was young, full of presumption, theoretical,
very aggressive, I was very tied to turn of the century functionalism,
to the idea of functional style. but gradually I left that behind,
because I found a new source of inspiration. from then on I began to try
to figure out what I could be in terms of this society, the people,
the necessity which surrounded me. ‘memphis’ was a sort of exercise in design,
so was ‘olivetti’. they asked me to set up the design of the electronics division.
at that time, electronics meant big closets... it was impossible to understand.
besides the functionality, which i am still interested in, there was this mystery of
electronics. I wanted to show that electronics were mysterious, that is
the relationship between design and functionality,
a more extensive functionality... a description of a certain conception of existence.
this relationship has been and still is central in my work.

whole interview here.