Cooper Hewitt says...
Gino Valle was an architect and industrial designer born in Udine, Italy in 1923. He was the son of noted architect Provino Valle and the brother of Lella Vignelli, who together with her husband Massimo Vignelli co-founded Vignelli Associates. Valle’s career in the arts began with painting when he earned recognition in 1943 when two of his works were selected for the Bergamo prize. He attended the University Institute of Architecture in Venice, where he graduated in 1948. Upon graduation he began his professional career working for his father in Udine. Over the years, he earned numerous scholarships abroad including a Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1951. His first teaching experience was at the International School of CIAM, where he taught from 1952 to 1954. He then became a professor with the University of Venice architecture program from 1954 to 2001, occupying the Chair of Geometry Application Courses, Elements of Composition and Composition IV for many years. Valle’s design work included the plate refrigerator for Zanussi, and multiple collaborations with Solari, including clocks and date stamps which earned him the Compasso d'Oro Prize of 1956, as well as the system of telemarketing systems for airports and stations for which he won the same award in 1962. Among his most famous works is the Cifra 3, a clock with a roller mechanism similar to display boards with flap mechanisms that were seen in airports and train stations around the world.
