Andries & Hiroko Van Onck

Andries Van Onck was born in Amsterdam, 1928. In 1959 he started as a designer at Olivetti in Italy assisting Ettore Sottsass. In 1965 he opened his own studio in Milan and his wife Hiroko Takeda joined him in 1972. They created many products in different sectors, such as household appliances, furniture, machine tools and electronic equipment. Always interested in the theoretical aspects of design, such as design language, morphology and semiotics, Andries Van Onck spent much time as a teacher, wrote articles and also the book Design. Il senso delle forme dei prodotti, Lupetti 1994.

Hiroko Takeda was born in 1945. She graduated from Tokyo Academy. Between 1968 and 1972 she worked with various Japanese furniture design companies. She has lectured at places including ISIA in Rome and Florence and in Montevideo (Uruguay) on the relations between Japanese aesthetics and western design. Since 1998 she has been teaching product design at Milan Polytechnic faculty of industrial design.

Together they have received numerous awards including: MACEF Award, 1974; SMAU Award, 1975; Compasso D'Oro, 1979; selection at Compasso d'Oro, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1995; selection for Forum Design Award, 1992. Their work has been exhibited in several museums and exhibitions and is part of the permanent collections at Chicago, London, Paris and Amsterdam Museums.