He looks like a cross between legendary 20th-century Russian monk Rasputin and Fidel Castro. Who is he? He is a Milanese design ideologue famous for his leading role in Memphis. Formed in 1981, Memphis was an alliance of Italian designers and architects responsible for a string of memorable products in the 1980s. Laughing at the assumption that products had to be cool and sleek, the Memphis mavericks generated vivid, whimsical exercises in spectacle.
That doesn't sound tasteful. No, the Memphis set had no time for taste. As a result, their work may look trashy today. Even so, at the time, it made a splash, reinvigorating a scene enervated by the dominance of minimalism. The funky name was a wink at the ancient Egyptian capital of culture, a Bob Dylan song (Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again) and the home of Elvis Presley.
What's De Lucchi's story? He was born in 1951 in Ferrara, Italy, a town with a history. It was a magnet for the finest Renaissance thinkers during the 15th and 16th centuries. Ferrara's fertile past apparently rubbed off on De Lucchi. When he graduated in architecture at the University of Florence in 1975, he had already established Cavarti - a group that led the radical architecture movement.
Was this movement as zany as Memphis? No. Radical architecture was a humanist reaction to the 1960s and 70s boom that fostered the notion technology was king. Convinced modern architecture was wildly out of touch with the human spirit, radical architects explored and embraced connected disciplines such as the fine arts, design, even theatre.
How commercially successful is he? Hugely. De Lucchi has worked for Artemide, Matsushita, Mauser and Olivetti, where he has been director of design since the early 90s. Surprisingly comfortable in the tech realm for a radical architect, he has also worked for Compaq, Philips and Siemens.
What is he most famous for? His cantilevered model of flexibility the Tolomeo lamp (below, which appears in movies such as Ocean's 11, Men in Black and The Truman Show. Another memorable creation is the Giotto Blue Flower Vase (left).