Born in La Spezia in Italy in 1939, Pesce studied architecture at the University of Venice. After graduating in 1965 he began investigating industrial manufacturing processes, seeking to humanise them through experimentation, variation and his own colourful expression. His investigations in the use of new materials such as resin and polyurethanes broke the mould, creating unique art-design pieces that invited flaws as part of the design process, as can be seem in the Moss and Spaghetti range vases, which celebrate the uncertainty of their manufacture. This ideology, that runs against standardisation, broke with the modernist philosophy of the period that saw the idea of perfection as the ideal outcome, setting Pesce on a radical and ground-breaking course.
Herbert Muschamp of the The New York Times described Pesce as ‘the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm’. Pesce’s well-known architectural projects include the Organic Building in Osaka, Japan, a vertical garden building with a complex concealed hydration system to sustain plant growth, where the ‘co-existence of greenery, architecture, and human beings’ is central.
The interior architecture of the TBWA/Chiat/Day’s offices in New York (1994) was another important commission and was conceived as an early ‘workplace village’ with an experimental layout, described at the time as ‘the furthest flight from the rectangle ever achieved in office design’. (Architectural Review, January 1995). Grey cubicles were replaced in Pesce’s bright colours, with playful doors featuring dripping handles and colourful communal tables and stools. Likewise his furniture is charged with deeper meaning, as well as humorous elements, that range from the whimsical Crosby chairs with their anthropomorphic qualities to the Tramonto sofa that pays homage to the New York skyline at sunset.
