Alberto Alessi Remembers the Sapper Water Kettle | Big Think

Alberto Alessi Remembers the Sapper Water Kettle

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The designer tells the story of a kettle from the Black Forest.

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Alberto Alessi:

Born in Arona, Italy in 1946, Alberto Alessi is managing director of Alessi Spa and head of marketing strategy, communication and design management.

As the eldest son of Carlo Alessi, he represents the third generation of the Alessi family, and officially joined the company in 1970, the day after he graduated from law school. One of his first projects was to overhaul the company's corporate identity, commissioning Franco Sargiani and Eija Helander to work on graphic design and packaging as well as the company offices at Crusinallo.

Alberto Alessi has written several books, including La Cintura di Orione (Longanesi, Milano 1986), Not in Production, Next to Production (Alessi Spa, Crusinallo 1988), and The Dream Factory (Electa, Milano 1998). During his career he has contributed articles for many international magazines and publications and been a visiting professor at several design colleges.

Alberto Alessi is a member of the Academic Board of the U.I.A.H., Helsinki and sits on the honorary committee of the Design Museum, London. He is a senior fellow of the Royal College of Art, London; honorary professor of the Hochschule der Bildenden Kunste, Saarbrucken; Doctor Honoris Causa of the U.I.A.H. of Helsinki; Doctor of Fine Arts at the Miami University of Oxford, Ohio; and, has an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Central England, Birmingham.

In 1998 he received the Design Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What is one design that really impressed you?

Alessi: Going back to this example of Richard Sapper water kettle. This was a good example because Richard wanted to have a polysensorial, multisensorial object. I mean, an object not appealing only to the seeing or touching but also to other senses, for example, hearing. He wanted to produce a melody. Not only that, he wanted a melody… remembering when he was a child and living in Germany, in a village with a river, and on the river, was passing by a steamboat. He wanted his kettle producing the same melody. After, like, one and a half year, my technicians were not able to find a way so he was obliged to put the project on the side and to abandon it. Until… Then, 2 years later, one of Sapper’s sisters, living in Germany, found out in the Black Forest, there’s more craftsman producing the quarries. Quarries are these pipes that you put inside and that are producing the melody. So after some negotiation, we had a special production of 2 different versions of pipes, with a E and with a C. Which allow me to start again with the project, were, then, was present in ’82 and became one of the most important Alessi product.