Work: 9090

Description

“I wanted to give this machine capabilities that the others don’t have”, Alberto Alessi.

The 9090 espresso coffee maker is the first moka made by Alessi, and was created in 1979 in response to Alberto Alessi‘s wish to revisit his maternal great-grandfather, Alfonso Bialetti’s famous coffee pot. Designed by Richard Sapper, the 9090 is made entirely of steel.

It consists of two interlocking parts: the boiler and the upper chamber, both with circular bases. The boiler has a wider conical base to better collect and distribute heat. The upper chamber narrows into a cylinder with the spout on one side and the handle with the hinge for the lid directly opposite. Concealed inside are the funnel filter for the ground coffee, the filter plate, the gasket and the central column where the coffee comes out.

To open and close the coffee maker, just grasp the handle firmly and turn: a tooth located above the valve and a pin on the opposite side are the moka’s hooking and locking points. The version in our collection is the 9090 for 3 cups of coffee. It is 17.5 centimetres high and has a dark grey handle, but they are manufactured in different sizes and with various types of handle.

Above all, the designer Richard Sapper wanted to create a product that was easy and safe to use, and whose production costs would be competitive. It has been defined as an “amphibious object” since it was created to be used in the kitchen but, given its aesthetic quality, it is also perfect for use in the living room. It was also the first Alessi object to be included in the permanent collection of the MoMa in New York.

“The 9090 perfectly sums up our thinking: true design is visible intelligence”, Alberto Brogliato and Federico Traverso of the BrogliatoTraverso Design Studio.

 9090 – duration 0:31
Sonic evocation of the object created by Paolo Ferrario

Futher information: espresso coffee maker on Alessi’s website