Ettore Sottsass

Italian designer and architect Sottsass is known for his eclectic, irreverent, often startling concepts. His architecture fuses local traditions and modern technology, as in the riotously colorful, Corbusier-like Wolf House, a villa in Colorado which Radice, his longtime companion, aptly dubs ``a metaphysical object dropped in a wild landscape.'' Sottsass's iconoclastic furniture includes ``superboxes'' or plastic laminate closets, the minimalist beds made of chromed metal and lacquered wood. This informal, lavishly illustrated monograph also showcases the typewriters, chairs and computers he designed for Olivetti, as well as colorful ceramic columns and ``totems'' inspired by his travels in India. Radice, editor of the journal Terrazzo , profiles a restless, innovative man, an obsessive traveler whose works channel ``cultural nomadism'' into a source of creative energy. (Sept.)