A major figure of Italian design died at 87 years of age on 18 February in Milan, the city of his birth. A graduate of Politecnico di Milano, Alessandro Mendini combined active involvement in the ‘radical design’ movement of the 1970s – as head of the group Alchimia – with an architectural practice, Atelier Mendini. This resulted in the materialization of buildings that are difficult to classify, two examples of which are the Groninger Museum and the Alessi Museum in Omegna. Mendini was in addition a refined journalist, a facet of his that he applied serving as editor of the magazines Casabella (1970-1976), Modo (founded by himself in 1977), and especially Domus (1979-1985, 2010-2011).