Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria in 1917 and grew up in Milan where his father worked as an Architect.  Architecture was in his blood.  He went to the Politecnico de Torino in Turin, Italy and graduated in 1939 as an Archiect.  Surviving military service in WWII and a concentration camp in the former Yugoslavia, he returned home in 1948 and set up his architectural and industrial design studio in Milan.