Mario Bellini (born 1 February 1935) is an Italian architect and designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1959, Bellini pursued a career as an architect, exhibition designer, product designer, and furniture designer during the Italian economic boom of the late 20th century. Bellini has received several accolades in a variety of design fields, including eight Compasso d'Oro awards and the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Triennale di Milano. In 2019, the Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico, awarded Bellini a career medal in recognition of his contributions to Italian architecture and design.

Design

In 1963, Bellini became a consultant for Olivetti, where he worked on the design of the Programma 101, a precursor to the desktop computer. His design for the CMC7-7004 magnetic character marking machine won the Compasso d'Oro in 1964. Bellini continued to collaborate with Olivetti throughout the 1970s and 1980s, during which time he was involved in the design of many of the company's iconic products, such as the Lexicon 82 and Praxis 35 electric typewriters (the latter of which also won a Compasso d'Oro in 1981), Mercator 20 cash register (1984 Compasso d'Oro), and the Divisumma 28 electronic printing calculator. Bellini has also worked with several other companies, including B&B Italia, Brionvega, Cassina, Heller Furniture, Flou, Yamaha, Renault, Rosenthal, Tecno, Riva 1920, Vitra, and Kartell. For many years he designed furnishing products and systems for B&B Italia and Cassina. He designed TV sets, hi-fi systems, headphones, and electric organs for Yamaha. For five years, he worked as an automobile design consultant with Renault. He has also designed for Fiat and Lancia (notably the interior of the 1980 Lancia Trevi); lamps for Artemide, Erco, and Flos; and office furniture for Vitra. Other firms for which he has designed products and/or continues to design products include (in Italy) Acerbis, Bras, Driade, Candy, Castilia, Flou, Kartell, Marcatrè, Meritalia, Natuzzi and Poltrona Frau; (in Belgium) Ideal Standard; (in Germany) Lamy and Rosenthal; (in Japan) Fuji and Zojirushi; and (in the USA) Heller Furniture. In 1972, Bellini was commissioned to design and build the prototype of the Kar-a-Sutra mobile environment for the exhibition “Italy: the New Domestic Landscape” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His Camaleonda modular sofa system, produced until 1979 by B&B Italia, was also shown in this exhibition. In 1987, the Museum of Modern Art devoted a personal retrospective exhibition to Bellini's career. At the time, the museum already included 25 of his works in its permanent collection, including a set of Olivetti machines, furniture designed in collaboration with B&B and Cassina, and the office chairs he designed for Vitra. Mario Bellini Architects (MBA) is headquartered in Milan. The 1,500 square meter building was designed by Mario Bellini himself in the early 1990s. In 1999, MBA obtained ISO 9001 quality certification. Today, the firm employs an average of 30 to 35 architects.

Gallery of design works

Architecture

Since the 1980s, Bellini has designed buildings in Europe, Japan, the United States, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. Projects built Projects under construction Among the best architectural creations

Exhibitions

Bellini has been responsible for the exhibition design of many art exhibitions, including the following:

Major solo exhibitions