[1] His father belonged to the modernist architecture group Movimento Italiano per l'Architettura Razionale (MIAR), which was led by Giuseppe Pagano.

After the invasion of Italy by the Anglo-Americans, Sottsass enlisted in the Monterosa Division of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana which was led by Benito Mussolini and the Republican Fascist Party, to fight in the mountains alongside Hitler's army (Sottsass tells his adventures as a Lieutenant of the Monterosa Division in his autobiography "Scritto di Notte" published by Adelphi).

After returning home, Ettore Sottsass worked as an architect with his father, often on new modernist versions of buildings that were destroyed during the war.

[5] Back in Italy in 1957, Sottsass joined Poltronova [it], a semi-industrial producer of contemporary furniture, as an artistic consultant.

[7][8] His design for the MC 19 electric adding machine (with Hans von Klier [it]) was awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1970.

There Sottsass made his name as a designer who, through colour, form and styling, managed to bring office equipment into the realm of popular culture.

[11] While continuing to design for Olivetti in the 1960s, Sottsass developed a range of objects which were expressions of his personal experiences traveling in the United States and India.

"[15][16] As a result, his work from the late 1960s to the 1970s was defined by experimental collaborations with younger designers such as Superstudio and Archizoom Associati,[17] and association with the Radical movement, culminating in the foundation of Memphis at the turn of the decade.

[citation needed] In October 1980, Sottsass was confronted with two proposals, one from Renzo Brugola, a dear old friend and carpenter, telling him his will "to make something together like in the good old times," and the other one from Mario and Brunella Godani, owners of the Design Gallery Milano, who asked him to create "new furniture" for their gallery.

Sottsass centered the group's thinking around "radical, funny, and outrageous"—essentially, disregarding what was considered in "good taste" at that time.

For the print, Sottsass used inspiration from the surface texture and form of a Buddhist temple in Madurai, India, he then abstracted this detail into the squiggles he named Bacterio.

Sottsass Associati was established in 1980 and gave the possibility to build architecture on a substantial scale as well as to design for large international industries.

Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan, and furniture of all kinds.

Sottsass Associati is now based in London and Milan and continue to sustain the work, philosophy, and culture of the studio.

As an industrial designer, his clients included Fiorucci, Esprit, the Italian furniture company Poltronova, Knoll International, Serafino Zani, Alessi, Brondi, and Brionvega.

[30] In the mid-1990s, he designed the sculpture garden and entry gates of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Gallery at the campus of Cal Poly Pomona.

He collaborated with well-known figures in the architecture and design field, including Aldo Cibic, James Irvine, Matteo Thun.