In 1979 the architect Vittorio Gregotti contributed this modernist design for a tea and coffee service to Cleto Munari’s collection of functional objects. Munari commissioned works from many of the most celebrated architects and designers of the twentieth century. These designs were produced in small editions and made by craftsmen in Vicenza, Italy.¹ Gregotti’s Tea and Coffee Service has a rectilinear design of strong vertical and horizontal lines that accentuate the height of the teapot and the length of the serving tray, respectively. The handles of the tray are ornamented with parallel rows of punched squares, recalling the early twentieth-century designs of the master architect Josef Hoffmann, such as his Sitzmaschine Model 670, also included in this online catalogue. A recessed area at one end of the tray serves to hold the teapot, creamer, and sugar in place. This architectonic design references the arrangement of buildings overlooking a plaza, like those that Gregotti designed for many of his architectural commissions. Gregotti was attentive to the relationship between the buildings he designed and the landscape that they inhabited. This interest shaped his practice as an architect and as an urban planner.

 

Gregotti received his degree in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic in 1952 and established his own architecture firm, Gregotti Associati, in 1974. He was a prolific writer and served as director of the influential architecture and design magazines Casabella and Rassegna. Gregotti was an esteemed educator and taught at universities in Venice, Milan, and Palermo. He also held numerous visiting professorships at architecture schools around the world, including universities in Argentina, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States.² —Sarah Marie Horne