Andrea Branzi

Andrea Branzi
Andrea Branzi in 2008
Born	1938 Florence
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Architect
Awards	1987 Compasso d'oro 1995 Compasso d'oro

1987 Compasso d'oro

Andrea Branzi (born 30 November 1938) is an Italian architect and designer.

Branzi was born in Florence where he also graduated in architecture in 1966 with his project "Supermarket- Luna Park", a reproduction of this project "Luna Park II" (2001) is at Centre Georges Pompidou. Currently he lives and works in Milan, Italy, where he moved in 1973.

His work and interests relate to industrial design, architecture, urban planning, and cultural promotion. He also works as a professor of industrial design at the Politecnico di Milano University.

Together with Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi, Gilberto Coretti, Dario and Lucia Bartolini he founded the Archizoom Associati in 1966. He is a promoter of the Italian Radical Architecture movement. From the Radical Period, came the very famous Superarchitettura theoretical framework, which brought his work to Anti-Design. From 1976, he participated in the movement Alchimia, founded by Alessandro Guerriero. The movement was defined as a laboratory for experimental industrial design. In his career, Branzi wrote many books, among which are Learning from Milan, The Hot House and Domestic Animals (published by MIT press), 'Nouvelles de la Metropole Froide' (Centre Georges Pompidou) and Introduzione al Design Italiano. Branzi has collaborated with many Italian architectural magazines such as 'Interni', 'Domus', 'Casabella'. He has also been the editor of MODO (1983–1987).

In 1983 he was one of the founders of the 'Domus Academy', the first international post-graduate school of design.

His enormous work Vase was on permanent display in the courtyard of the Design Museum in Gent but has since been moved to the Verbeke Foundation. In 2008 he installed his work Open Enclosures at the Fondation Cartier in Paris.

In 2008 Andrea Branzi was named an Honorary Royal Designer in the United Kingdom. The same year he launched a series of shelf units and console tables entitled "Trees", which were exhibited at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris. "Formally, these pieces are a delight, the rigid monochrome geometry of the metal playing against the patterned vitality of the tree. But there is also something surreal about the way these highly romantic trees boldly invade this accomplished minimalist furniture", - writes The Financial Times. The "Trees" exhibition represents "continuation of his thinking on architecture".