Design coffee makers are some of the clearest expressions of where design meets daily life. Moka pots and coffee makers are sculptural, beautiful, and functional objects—at the center of an intimate, familiar ritual: making coffee at home.
The Moka Pot: Where Design Meets Ritual
Moka pots and well-designed coffee makers are special objects. They’re connected to a quiet, familiar moment in the day. Often the centerpiece of the kitchen, they’ve become an interesting challenge for architects and designers, who reimagine them as true sculptural forms.
This article looks at the models and designers that have made a lasting impression. Some have become design classics, others bestsellers for the companies that produce them. A few have even found their way into museum collections.
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La Conica, Aldo Rossi
La Conica was the first collaboration between Aldo Rossi and the Piedmont-based company Alessi. It’s a strikingly elegant coffee maker, with forms that feel both primitive and futuristic. The body is made of stainless steel, with a copper base.
Its essential geometric shapes give it a sculptural presence and a quietly refined atmosphere. The materials amplify its visual impact, contributing to the strong aesthetic identity that made La Conica a favorite among design enthusiasts.
Pulcina, Michele de Lucchi
Among the most recognizable design coffee makers, the Pulcina stands out for its sculptural shape and singular personality. Its curved, rhythmic lines evoke the layering of mountain landscapes—a theme that influenced Michele De Lucchi’s work at the time. The name, on the other hand, came about almost by accident. Looking at the final model, De Lucchi saw the profile of a little chick, and so it became Pulcina. A light, playful name that reflects how effortlessly the piece blends function with form.
9090 ESPRESSO COFFEE MAKER, RICHARD SAPPER
The 9090 Coffee Maker was designed by Richard Sapper for Alessi in 1979, it was Alessi’s first espresso coffee maker and an instant commercial success. It won the Compasso d’Oro in the same year and is now part of numerous prestigious collections: the MoMA in New York, the V&A in London, and the Triennale di Milano, to name a few. The coffee maker’s simple, essential lines, its sleek shape with a wide base, and Sapper’s focus on using only one material, have made the 9090 an icon of design and a contemporary masterpiece.
Menhir, Michael Anastassiades
Unveiled at the 2024 Salone del Mobile in Milan, the Menhir coffee maker by Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades is the latest example of architecture meeting everyday life. The coffee maker is made of stainless steel, and its shape is inspired by Menhirs, the tall stones placed in prehistoric landscapes for magical or religious rituals. Even today, Menhirs create an enigmatic atmosphere that evokes ancestral voices—this is precisely the sensation the designer sought to capture. The blend of imagination and the necessity of mass production is embodied in this elegant, sculptural coffee maker, destined to leave a mark in design history.
Bialetti Moka Express
Launched by Alfonso Bialetti in 1933 with the slogan “An espresso at home, just like at the café,” the Moka Express is a symbol. It represents being Italian, family, and a post-lunch break. An object that unites an entire culture (according to one estimate, it is present in over 90% of Italian homes), and fortunately, it is also widely present outside of Italy. Always produced with the same design, it is a familiar object that brings together an entire nation, from grandmothers to university students and being around for nearly a century, has many stories to tell. Today, it remains the most popular moka pot in Italy, with an almost perfect design and unparalleled success.
La Cupola, Aldo Rossi
La Cupola by Aldo Rossi has often been described as tabletop architecture, an object that defined the aesthetics of the 1990s and became a staple of Italian design. In this project, Aldo Rossi combines simplicity of form, lightness, and functionality with a distinctive shape. The coffee maker features a domed top (cupola in Italian), giving it a familiar yet architectural appearance. As a coffee maker, La Cupola becomes a design icon, merging aesthetic strength with the functionality of everyday objects.
Mach 2, Isao Hosoe
This stunning design moka pot is a collaboration between the Italian company Serafino Zani and Japanese designer Isao Hosoe. Launched in 1992, this coffee maker has a strong postmodern character, expressed through its geometric shapes, symmetrical volumes, and the presence of a Doric column supporting the entire design. In the words of the designer: The magical transformation of water into coffee inside a coffee maker inspired me to give the purely physical process a ritual, magical, and symbolic value. Two identical cones are symmetrically joined above and below by a long Greek column. The lower cone contains the water to be heated, and the upper cone, turned upside down, will receive the coffee only after the joyful ritual passage along the vertical column.
Moka Alessi, Alessandro Mendini
After working as the creative director of Alessi in the 1980s and being the driving force behind ideas that would go down in history, such as the Tea & Coffee Piazza series, the great Italian designer Alessandro Mendini designed his own contribution to the history of Alessi coffee makers. Here is his Moka Alessi, with its pop and rounded shape (reminiscent of the ironic and postmodern forms of Memphis), an homage to the classic Moka, which was met with great public and commercial success.
Ossidiana, Mario Trimarchi
Elegant and sculptural, Ossidiana is an homage to traditional aluminum coffee makers and the volcanic stone from which it takes its name. Thanks to this project, Trimarchi won the Compasso d’Oro in 2016. Trimarchi himself describes the Ossidiana coffee maker: Lately, I have been particularly interested in sculpture, the kind that removes material from a solid block to reveal its hidden forms. I worked on a cylindrical volume, removing, one by one, the superfluous reflections of aluminum to create a sculptural design coffee maker, capable of guiding the hands when closing.
Moka DC06, David Chipperfield
With this design, the great contemporary architect David Chipperfield aimed to pay homage to the Bialetti Moka (as suggested by the coffee maker’s name), a major symbol of Italian coffee culture. Chipperfield’s Moka coffee maker is a variation of Alfonso Bialetti’s original design, this time rendered in an eleven-sided polygon with a flat lid. These design features make the object both familiar and contemporary.
