Isao Hosoe

Concept for Interna

“Play Hotel, the entire work of our studio for Interna Collection, is a theatre where actors and actresses play their role. The furnishings are the stage elements that make the whole scene fascinating.”


Isao Hosoe was born in Tokyo in 1942. In 1965 he graduated in Aerospace Engineering and in 1967 he obtained a Master of Science degree from the Nihon University of Tokyo. He has been living in Milan since 1967, where in 1985, after cooperating for several years from 1967 to 1974 with the Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli, he founded “Isao Hosoe Design”. Alongside his professional design work, he has been actively involved in teaching and research at a number of top European universities including the “La Sapienza” in Rome, Les Ateliers in Paris, Elisawa in Barcelona and the University of Lisbon. He is also co-author of the book “Playoffice” (1991,G.C. Press, Tokyo), and has many other publications to his name. Isao Hosoe has won numerous international awards, including the Gold Medal at the Triennial Exhibition of Milan, the Good Design Award Tokyo (1988) and, on no less than six occasions, the Chicago Athenaeum’s ‘Good Design Award. He has exhibited widely around the world and his designs are on permanent display at the V&A in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, in Chicago and in Milan. His client portfolio is extraordinarily varied and ranges from Bisazza to Bruno Magli, from Bosch to Zanussi and Honda to the SNCF French Railways.