Sergio Mazza

Sergio Mazza (1931-), Italian architect and designer, had an important role both in the industrial history of Italian design and in that of its intellectual dissemination. In fact, his first role sees him as founder of the Artemide company in 1959, in partnership with his friend, the aeronautical engineer Ernesto Gismondi, who would later become his hegemonic figure from a management point of view. Mazza designed many of the first lamps produced by Artemide and accompanied the company in the first experiments on the nascent plastic furniture market. In 1961 he founded the SMC Architettura studio together with Giuliana Gramigna (1929-2016), on whom he would have worked all his life. In addition to Artemide, the two designed lamps for Quattrifolio, furniture for Cinova and handles for Olivari, but they linked their name above all to a great publishing initiative: in 1966 they founded and directed the magazine Ottagono, one of the important publications in the world of furniture and design. Ottagono will be awarded by ADI with the Compasso d'Oro in 1979, Mazza and Gramigna directed it for over twenty years, until 1988.