Designer of the month - David Chipperfield

David Chipperfield, a British architect, designer and professor, was born on December 18, 1953 in London. The fact that he grew up on a farm made him dream of becoming a veterinarian, during his youth. However, he ended up entering the world of arts, with his higher academic education focused on architecture, at the beginning attending Kingston University and later the Architectural Association, in London.

After working with several important names in architecture, David created his own identity and, in 1985, decided to found his own company, David Chipperfield Architects, that nowadays has offices in Berlin, London, Milan and Shanghai. He also had worldwide recognition, translated into more than 100 international awards won.

Chipperfield is recognized not only for its simplicity and minimalist approach to design, but also for the construction and restoring of major museums, all over the world, such as the Museum of Modern Literature (Germany), Saint Louis Art Museum (USA), The Hepworth Wakefield (England), among others.

For Chipperfield, architecture is not about creating buildings independent of everything that surrounds them. Nowadays, it is imperative that there is planning and understanding of the space where the building will be inserted, in order to be adapted to the surrounding environment and improve, at several levels, the aesthetic, the quality of life, among others.

The architect is also a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and the Bund Deutscher Architekten. He has already taught at the most prestigious universities of arts and architecture in the world, has several books and articles published, especially related to the product design area and he has already collaborated with several brands such as Alessi or Roca.

The first collaboration with the Italian brand Alessi was in 2009, which resulted in the collection of tableware Tonale, followed by other collections such as Piana, of chairs and Santiago, regarding cutlery.

But it was in 2019 that appeared the product with the most recognition of this partnership, the contemporary redesign of the coffee maker Moka.

This classic Italian coffee maker, invented by Alfonso Bialetti in 1930, has become an iconic and indispensable object, not only in Italian homes, but also around the world. Therefore, Chipperfield wanted to preserve the familiar and essential qualities of the original Moka, in order to keep its identity, but at the same time improved some aspects, such as the handle and the number of faces.

Are you a coffee lover and can you smell it just by reading this article? Discover the 4 sizes of the coffee maker Moka, suitable for gas stoves, electric plates and vitroceramic hobs, available in our store, as well as all Alessi products, designed by David Chipperfield.

Would you like to know more about David Chipperfield's career and what led him to choose the world of architecture? We recommend you to listen to the interview that he gave, in March this year, to the magazine Dezeen on the podcast Face to Face.

Let yourself be inspired!