A Milanese studio with a London address: Sottsass Associati

Two addresses tell the story. Sottsass Associati keeps its operating studio in Milan, in via Melone, and its administrative base in London, the city that also supplied several of the names who passed through the practice: James Irvine, Mike Ryan, Gerry Taylor and Christopher Redfern, the British associate who now co-leads it. Ettore Sottsass set the studio up in 1980, while Memphis was making the headlines, as a design consultancy of real scale: architecture, elaborate stores for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors and furniture of every kind. The founder gave the cultural guidance; the associates did the work, and many went on to open studios of their own.

For British projects La Mercanti sources two of the studio's chairs through houses it distributes: Cloud, drawn for ICF in 1998, and the stacking Trono for Segis.