Alberto Alessi, managing director of Italian homeware design brand Alessi, was recently in town to open the Alessi Tea & Coffee Towers Exhibition at the Landmark. The show featured 20 tea and coffee sets designed by 20 renowned architects, including Britain's Zaha Hadid, France's Dominique Perrault and Hong Kong's Gary Chang. What is the philosophy behind the Tea & Coffee Towers Exhibition? 'In Italy there is a very strong relationship between product design and architecture. Many important designers were previously architects who were also involved in product design. So we periodically conduct a survey into the world of architecture to see if there are any young architects - an architect at the age of 40 is still considered young - also interested in doing product design.' The 20 sets of products are distinctive in design and some of them do not look like tea and coffee sets at all. How would you describe them? 'You cannot describe the products in a few words. There are at least two types of architects in the world. One of them excels in designing with the computer; the work of the other embodies a kind of poetic streak. This project contains both elements, which is the reason I like it.' What do you think makes a well-designed product? 'A good design is one that enables you to smell the true spirit of the time when it was created, but it also represents that spirit in a completely new form. For us, product design is a new form of art and poetry that represents our time. We try to be the mediator to get the best expression of the design.' What does playing the role of mediator entail? 'We have a clear cultural policy, which is that we play the mediator between the world of creativity and the consumer market to bring out the best expression of creativity while catering to the needs of customers. In a way this is very Italian. If you are looking for the best-designed products, you're almost obliged to turn to the catalogue of an Italian design factory.'