Italian architect and industrial designer Gaetano Pesce has passed away at the age of 84, as announced today on the creator's official Instagram page. Known for the famous UP5 Chair (2000) by B&B Italia which can be compressed like a sponge, and the Organic Building in Osaka, Japan (1993), with a vertical garden irrigated by a complex, computer-controlled hydration system, Pesce dedicated over six decades to his craft, accumulating a portfolio that spanned architecture, product design, and art.
During Milan Design Week 2024, a monographic exhibition titled "Nice to See You" showing at Biblioteca Ambrosiana, is set to feature unreleased works of Gaetano Pesce. Additionally, Gaetano was presenting "L’Uomo Stanco" an outdoor installation in Piazza San Pio XI.
Gaetano Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939, Italy, and lived in New York, the United States. He studied architecture at the University of Venice, under Carlo Scarpa and Ernesto Rogers "between 1958 and 1963 and was a participant in Gruppo N, an early collective concerned with programmed art patterned after the Bauhaus", according to his website.
Related Article
15 Contemporary Architects Who Design ChairsExploring colors and materials, he "has researched the function and form of utilitarian objects", since the 60s and produced pieces for industry giants like B&B Italia, Vitra, and Cassina. His most famous architectural interventions include the Organic Building in Osaka, Japan (1993), Les Halles ACIH (1979), and Parc de la Villette (1985), in Paris, France. Finally, his work, models, and drawings are part of over 30 permanent collections of the most important museums in the world, such as the MoMa of New York and San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Vitra Museum in Germany, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Pompidou Center and Musee des Arts Décoratifs of Louvre in Paris.
