Giovanni Sacchi

Giovanni Sacchi was born in Sesto San Giovanni, near Milan, in 1913. At twelve, started by his father to work with him to Marelli where he remained for one week. "Escape to Milan" where he began his apprenticeship as a modeller at the foundry workshop Ceresa & Boretti.

In fifty years activity has built over twenty-five wooden models of objects that make up the history of design and eight architectural models.

Encounter with Marcello Nizzoli, after the war, was introduced into the world of industrial design.
His "shop" in Milan, has been a crossroads of experiences, meetings, trials that have contributed to the success of Made in Italy.

In his laboratory have passed the most illustrious personages who have made the history of Italian design: Nizzoli, Gio Ponti, Munari, Colombo, Zanuso, Sapper, the Castiglioni, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Belgioioso, Gardella, Bellini, Rossi, Piano, etc. Botta .
He worked for many companies including: Olivetti, Fiat-Lancia, IBM, Philips, Brionvega, Rex, Alessi, Nava.

His models are an important element for those who want to fully understand the birth and the peculiarities of Italian design. Many of the objects that have marked success are passed, under the model, between his hands: televisions, radios, telephones, typewriters, refrigerators, watches, sewing machines, lamps, cutlery, pots, cars, vacuum cleaners, pens, switches, handles, coffee pots, chairs, stools, calculators, computers.

Among the objects of which John Sacchi has developed the model, some, awarded with the Golden Compass: the typewriter, Lettera 22, 1950, the sewing machine Mirella 1957, 1965, Grillo telephone, radio TS502, 1964 The TV Algol and Doney, 1962, 1967, coach Meteor of 1970, the Tizio lamp, 1972, the number of electronic calculators and Logos Divisumma the early seventies, the marker pen of Section 1976, the rocking Astolfo, 1979 The 9090 and Carmencita coffee pot of 1979, the Dry cutlery in 1982, the 4870 chair of 1985, the Sapper Tizio lamp for Artemide and cutlery Dry by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi.

In 1998, when the ADI awarded him the Compasso d'Oro for his career, Giovanni Sacchi has been forced to close due to lack of manpower. He failed to realize that the desire to turn his extraordinary laboratory in a school, which was also very current in today's world of three-dimensional simulation and advanced information technologies.

In 2000, the Triennale di Milano dedicates a large anthological exhibition to Giovanni Sacchi. On the occasion of the 2005 Salone, Cosmit and La Triennale di Milano make a fitting tribute to one of the main protagonists of the design world, who has been able to verify the feasibility of the ideas of fifty years of history of Italian design.

Ettore Sottsass has summed up the work of Giovanni Sacchi: "Beyond all praise generic, his great ability goes beyond the" doing "models: the object is to understand that then, he tells the models... With Bags you go over the volume: he makes you feel what really happens, tactile: it produces a feeling evolved, so that his model can satisfy the designer. With a model like this, in truth, there is almost no desire to make the object".