Š Marco Curatolo
Above: Fiera Milano Rho during Salone del Mobile
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the world to bring ideas here in order to exchange them in that unique fertile process of collective generation that is Milanese design. Design stimulates competition on a global scale for the attraction it generates. Milan boasts a dense system of relationships based on the plethora of available companies, universities, trade fairs, industries, publishing houses, museums, associations, sales points, galleries, artisans’ workshops and research centres. It is a vast informal organism, in continuous transformation. When it pauses, it does so to think about itself because when it is introduced, it interprets the appointment as an opportunity for exchange. At every Salone del Mobile, at every Triennale di Milano exhibition, every commercial and cultural event such as awards, exhibitions and gallery openings, Italian design renews itself in order to maintain its prestige and be scrutinized by its own community. Its alchemy has made the model difficult to imitate and reproduce elsewhere because the Milanese system functions due to the autonomy of its individuals (Salone and Fuorisalone, Milan Polytechnic and private schools, to give some examples of the complementary aspects). Cooperation, competition, moving towards common goals, openness and dialogue with innovation in the world are its identity components. Eliel Saarinen wrote, “Always design a thing by considering it in its largest context: a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in the environment, the environment in the design of the city”.This is the intrinsic commandment of Milanese design. There were times when it seemed that Milan had stalled or that it was losing ground in comparison to the great innovations in the world capitals. A metropolis reduced to half, with the desire to grow but lacking the drive to do it. Today the city is different. It is reborn. It is strong and solid, aware of its role as a national and international driver, a design capital where design, fashion, communication, architecture, infrastructure and public space accentuate exchanges of capital, people and knowledge. The glue in these bonds between companies, the public, and international networks has been and still is the Milan Fair, the Milan Polytechnic and the Milan Triennale. This book is a choral portrait dedicated to a sample of designers, men and women, who drive the incredible Milanese creative landscape with their work every day or through curators’ and researchers’ careful archival work and dissemination. Four generations of designers have been portrayed through interviews so that each conversation would convey a particular professional story and a vision of the city as a shared laboratory. The selection criteria identified to offer a representative range of the
different cases and stories of the Milan scene focused on some macro elements. These include a solid relationship with the companies whose showcase of choice is the Salone del Mobile, the tradition with the cultural and educational system offered by the city, having been the subject of research by scholars, curators and critics, and finally, inclusion in the trade magazines. Others may have had these characteristics but were not selected because their generation was already sufficiently represented or for editorial reasons or curatorial choices. Rather than a compilation, the book aims at presenting an updated analysis of a sample of profiles through the specific filter of the relationship with the city, the conformation of the functions of the studio, the relationships with the players in a social economic system unique in the world. The protagonists are teachers, professionals, young foreign and Italian designers whose life project in Milan includes dreams, sacrifices and goals. The interwoven stories of these protagonists and the city’s transformation resonate in every interview following recurring directions and polarities. This is a way to interpret the changes and various considerations on the relationship between the city centre, the urban periphery and the itineraries towards the companies, as well as seeing the many types adopted by the designers balancing turnover and career growth. A fundamental unit of measurement in this analysis was observation of the studio, the physical place for a professional business. This is how the house-and-shop studio, over time, came to include the living room, which then multiplied into areas dedicated to experimenting with materials, meetings, the library, archive, model-making, and administration. From the perpetual inception and moving toward the open space, to the compact model with individual sections divided according to skills, or the vast mobile office, a designer’s studio is a place in the making, open to various disciplines, often the lodging for a team of people and in any case always the depositary of a linguistic code and a design method. For the designer, the studio and its relationship with the city are the container and content of a direction, defining elements of a practice, characteristics that continue to involve the fabric of businesses, relations with universities and research institutions, museum and gallery programming, the publication of magazines and websites. The book is divided into five sections that attempt to organize the varied community of Milanese designers into a chronological order. This macro-category includes those who opened a studio in Milan in the post-World War II period or chose the city as an essential cross-
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Guglielmo Ulrich
Above: the studio in Ulrich house
CHAIR FOR THE DINING ROOM OF THE TOTAH HOUSE IN MILAN (1947) TABLE CLOCK (1997) Ri-edition: Matteo Grassi BRASS CHANDELIER FOR THE ULRICH HOUSE IN MILAN (1937)
After taking a degree in Architecture in Milan in 1928, Guglielmo Ulrich dedicated himself to the design of furniture and accessories, handcrafted by ARCA Arredamento Casa, the home furnishing company he founded in 1930 together with Attilio Scaglia and Renato Wild. Alongside Gio Ponti in the cultural debate of the time, he supported the renewal of contemporary taste and of the modern home, with an openness to exoticism but, above all, remaining in the wake of tradition, as illustrated by the very popular Willy armchair (1937, Poltrona Frau). In the 1950s, Ulrich’s professional interest was extended to larger works: the architect, in fact, engaged in the design of houses, shop fittings and offices – including
those of Galtrucco, for whom he studied the coordinated image – as well as the furnishing of large cruise ships, such as the famous Andrea Doria. Ulrich progressed cautiously from artisanal manufacture towards industrial production, reflecting a typically Milanese attitude of “prudence towards the new together with the thirst for novelty.” From the city, the designer also learned the ability to balance beauty, historical influences, functionality and practicality. The Triste laminated wood chair (1961, Saffa), characterized by open dovetail joints, represents the perfect combination of technique and refinement that characterizes the entire work of Ulrich.
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Above and right: the Albini studio, now home to the Albini Foundation
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The studio Ignazio Gardella had already embarked on his architectural career even before he graduated in civil engineering, having taken over his father Arnaldo’s studio on his premature death. He soon decided, however, to set up his own studio, working for family friends and acquaintances. Although he collaborated with colleagues throughout his professional career, he never considered forming partnerships with other professionals, except for the purposes of entering competitions. He was well aware that someone in charge of a project should listen to and evaluate the suggestions and proposals of the people he works with, but was convinced that the final decision should lie with the one person responsible. The method Gardella was in the habit of examining the designs for various projects with his assistants on a daily basis. He modified the parts he deemed inconsistent with his final vision and made corrections where elements did not seem to be fully satisfactory. He used the same procedure with his students or young architects who trained in his studio; he showed them his design methods and allowed them to watch, or participate in, the genesis and development of a project. He often quoted the philosopher Giambattista Vico, who was wont to say: “you learn by doing and know only what you are capable of doing”. He thus demonstrated his scepticism towards excessively theoretical and abstract explanations and stressed his belief in practical activity and hands-on experience. Milan: training and profession Despite Gardella’s family originally hailing from Genoa, the city of Milan was Ignazio Gardella’s professional base. He retained strong cultural bonds with Genoa, however, for all his life and career; indeed, he designed the Carlo Felice Theatre and the new premises of the Genoa University Architecture Faculty. Whereas before the Second World War young architecture graduates, in the 1930s in Milan, were given the chance to gain public recognition by taking part in official exhibitions, in particular, the Trienniale International Exhibitions of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts and of Modern Architecture – organised by the Milan Triennial Public Board at the Palace of Art – after the War commissions came mainly from private clients via family or university acquaintances. In Milan Gardella designed the Contemporary Art Pavilion, the Agriculture Pavilion and some Esselunga supermarkets in the outskirts of Milan and in other Northern Italian cities. He also received a prestigious public commission for the renovation of Piazza del Duomo. Moreover, in 1947, along with Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua, he founded Azucena, one of the first Italian companies to mass-produce furniture, with the aim of distributing furnishings and lamps designed by the founders themselves.
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Cultural commitments, links with industry His involvement, for many years after the War, in both the Managing Committee and the Scientific Committee of the Milan Trienniale was a greatly enriching experience for him and of enormous benefit to the cultural life of the city. His links with industry included a commission from Alfa Romeo for the construction of the Alfa Romeo Technical Offices Building (1968-74) in Arese, in the outskirts of Milan, and the design of the Olivetti Canteen and Recreational Club in Ivrea (1953-59). The prestige of these works is also enhanced by their being commissioned by such enlightened and competent exponents of industry. Client relations In the planning of both buildings and of fixed or temporary installations, Gardella was always extremely attentive to the needs of his clients and responsive to their requests, though he always pointed out and explained clearly the reasons behind his architectural choices. He considered his clients’ wishes and preferences not as obstacles to the design project, but as stimuli for improving the final result. This is why people have spoken of “Gardella’s humanism”, meaning by humanism his willingness to listen to a client’s needs and his commitment to conscientiously interpreting the wishes of the “man” standing before him. Teaching His university teaching is perhaps the least well-known of his activities. Just as in his office, in his duties as a teacher he did not endorse the spouting of theoretical lessons from the lecture podium, cultural discussions with colleagues or critical pontifications before an audience. On the contrary he was a great believer in example: while he corrected the graphic draughtsmanship of his students he would help and instruct them. Without revealing the right solution, he stimulated them to achieve more insightful results at both practical and aesthetic level. Gardella’s legacy Studio Gardella continues to honour architectural design tradition today and a Historical Archive is at the disposal of academics and professionals, with the goal of handing down to posterity the methods, and disseminating the work, of one of the leading players in twentieth century Italian architecture. — Jacopo Gardella
Right: House at the Giardini d’Ercole in Via Marchiondi, Milan, historical location of the studio and home of Ignazio Gardella, 1949-1954
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Cini Boeri
GHOST (1987) armchair Production: Fiam CIBI (1973) glass Production: Arnolfo di Cambio BOTOLO (1973) chair Production: Arflex
The adjectives that distinguish Cini Boeri’s work are “useful and new”. In fact, in every design project that she has taken on, she strives for innovation, for a positive change in the contemporary world, giving something more to our living spaces – more comfort, more safety, more well-being –, but never anything superfluous. Functionality and satisfying the customer’s needs prevail over any aesthetic research that might be an end in itself. Cini Boeri has experienced Milan in difficult times, such as the war, Milan’s fervent reconstruction and the great creativity of the Masters, the crisis of the 1970s and the recovery that gave the city a renewed drive to pursue innovation. In this climate of ups and downs, Cini Boeri has
always sought to identify social changes and use them to inspire and guide her own work, taking advantage of the positive proximity of the artisans and industries. Some of her creations have become icons of Italian design. Cini Boeri’s career has been a combination of architectural design, interior design and industrial design. She is particularly focused on the theme of private housing, and has created several remarkable buildings, often located in exceptionally fine natural settings, as in the case of the villas built in La Maddalena, Sardinia. Regardless of the scale, all of Cini Boeri’s designs are characterized by a sophisticated taste, a studied practicality and a subtle irony.
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Alberto and Francesco Meda
FLAP TOTEM (2013) lamp Production: Caimi Brevetti PIGRECO (2014) designed by Francesco Meda stool Production: Luce di Carrara AM CHAIR (2016) designed by Alberto Meda chair Production: Vitra
The studio of Alberto and Francesco Meda, father and son, is a traditional Milanese artisan workshop: it is small, with only two at work, but an exceptional creative force, capable of bringing its work to the attention of the world market. Alberto Meda began his family business as a freelance professional in 1979, in Milan, the city that had given him so many fortuitous and unexpected encounters. Instead, Francesco Meda, after working in London, decided, in 2009, to settle in the Lombard capital, which the world of design and fashion and the intertwining of industrial and artisan skill had made so dynamic and creative. The two have worked together on a series of projects – includ-
ing the Flap acoustic panel produced by Caimi Brevetti, winner of the German Design Award 2015 and Compasso d’Oro 2016 –, but both have their own independent creative businesses. The technical design know-how and production and sales systems knowledge have passed from father to son, as well as sensitivity to beauty, manifested in clear forms, clean lines and enhanced materials. The generation gap between the two designers is marked by the digitalization of the design process that has changed relationships with companies and made new tools available to professionals, tools such as 3D printers which Francesco Meda used to self-produce the Lofting 3D jewellery series.
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Lo studio Ancora oggi vivo in una casa meravigliosa che Marco Zanuso ha disegnato per me, mia moglie, i nostri figli e il nostro cane […]. Avevamo un meraviglioso terreno sul Lago di Como. Glielo feci vedere e lui mi disegnò una bellissima casa su quel pezzo di terra. […] Una casa a forma di L aperta verso il lago, in modo da formare una terrazza quadrata tra due ali; che permetteva una vista meravigliosa sul fondo lago, verso nordest, come su quello sudest, mentre schermava completamente le case vicine, in più offrendo dal centro della terrazza una splendida vista al di sopra del tetto, verso le vergini montagne a ovest, ma nessuna vista su case e villaggi più vicini. Tutta la casa era un’opera di magia. […] Quando incontrai Marco Zanuso per la prima volta avevo appena terminato il periodo più entusiasmante della mia vita. Ero cresciuto nell’ufficio stile di una fabbrica di automobili, la Mercedes-Benz, dove la perfezione era una religione. Era stato bellissimo lavorare in una società dove tutto, davvero tutto, doveva essere di prima classe. […] Ma dopo un paio d’anni capii che non ero fatto per fare l’impiegato in una grande società. Io volevo l’avventura. Così andai a Milano, nello studio di Gio Ponti. Era come se avessi iniziato una nuova vita. Qui tutto era diverso. Lo studio era popolato da una moltitudine di giovani entusiasti venuti da tutti i continenti per lavorare insieme in un’atmosfera di ispirazione culturale creata da quel vulcano che era Gio Ponti e da un numero ristretto di personalità estremamente interessanti e profondamente umane che lavoravano insieme a lui, oltre che dall’ambiente circostante. Primo fra tutti Alberto Rosselli, per cui nutrivo un’ammirazione
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profonda: sempre elegantissimo, sempre gentiluomo, sempre enigmatico con i suoi grandi occhi scuri. Oppure Gianfranco Frattini, con la sua Giulietta Spider rossa (mi chiedevo: si può guadagnare così tanto facendo l’architetto?) e le sue cravatte con i nodi più grandi che avessi mai visto. E Marcello Nizzoli, sempre gentilissimo con me; le sue macchine da scrivere mi sembravano talmente belle da sfiorare il miracolo. È stato per me un periodo elettrizzante: non ho mai trovato così tanti amici in così poco tempo come allora. Ogni giorno era una nuova avventura, molto più bella di quanto avessi mai potuto immaginare: la vita sembrava un sogno. Tutti erano gentilissimi: addirittura Ponti mi aveva offerto di abitare gratuitamente in un appartamento che non usava più e spesso ci invitava nella sua casa di vacanze a Civate; una gita che facevamo nella sua Fiat 1100. Purtroppo però, dopo circa un anno, in studio iniziarono a scarseggiare i progetti interessanti, almeno per me. Poiché non avevo voglia di disegnare mobili d’ufficio, mi misi a cercare un altro lavoro. E una sera incontrai Marco Zanuso. Così cominciò la nostra lunga collaborazione: quindici anni in cui ci siamo visti e parlati, in cui abbiamo discusso, disegnato e viaggiato insieme quasi tutti i giorni. Marco aveva degli incarichi importanti ma lo studio era piccolo e con poche persone. Non c’era l’atmosfera cosmopolita dello studio Ponti, tutto era molto più privato, molto più italiano, però anche qui i colleghi erano estremamente gentili e amichevoli. — Tratto dagli appunti di Richard Sapper per un intervento su Marco Zanuso.
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Lo studio Ho avuto molti studi negli anni. Prima a New York, poi a Tel Aviv, la mia città d’origine, e ora anche a Milano. Mi muovo continuamente tra Italia e Israele. Dal punto di vista strutturale – e anche per la loro conformazione – i due spazi appaiono molto diversi: a Tel Aviv ho una casa-studio che assomiglia molto al laboratorio di un artista. Lì le idee prendono vita partendo come schizzi su un foglio di carta e materializzandosi poi in prototipi, sculture e prodotti. Mi capita anche di invitare collezionisti o clienti per una visita. È uno spazio polveroso e anche se cerco di metterlo in ordine sembra sempre caotico… A Tel Aviv posso avere il privilegio di sognare e creare, mentre a Milano avviene il processo di realizzazione del progetto: poiché lavoro molto con l’industria italiana, è importante per me essere in contatto con le aziende, con i loro dipartimenti di ricerca e sviluppo e gli ingegneri. Quello milanese è, quindi, uno spazio, un ufficio operativo dove vengono principalmente risolte tutte le problematiche tecniche legate alla produzione. Per questo è quasi vuoto, ho solamente le cose che mi servono: dei fogli di carta, una penna, le finestre da cui far entrare la luce. La città Milano è il luogo in cui lavoro. Ma è molto più di questo. Milano – e l’Italia – è un posto caro al mio cuore. Non solo per la sua riconosciuta bellezza ma per la sua gente, con cui ho un rapporto speciale, sia dal punto di vista professionale sia affettivo. Qui ho una vita sociale, gli amici, gli affetti. Il mio essere qui non significa solamente presenza fisica, puramente “tecnica” e funzionale, ma un legame che ha un valore emozionale per me molto profondo. I luoghi Non ci sono luoghi precisi che ispirano il mio pensiero creativo. La vita in generale, il modo in cui esisto, le cose che vedo ogni giorno sono input che colleziono e che inevitabilmente faccio passare attraverso il setaccio della mia personalità, del mio DNA. L’essenza di queste informazioni, perfettamente filtrate, sono le mie creazioni. Quindi, più che posti fisici a Milano, sono alcune situazioni ad avere un riverbero nella mia coscienza, come il festival Piano City, che offre sia ai più preparati sia agli appassionati di musica classica come me un’energia e un incentivo alla vita incredibili. Inoltre l’estetica di Milano è molto diversa da quella di Tel Aviv; qui l’architettura racconta la storia e mi regala utili spunti di apprendimento. Per me vivere a Milano è un’occasione di continua conoscenza. Milano che cambia Più che la città, credo che in questi anni siano mutate le persone; le trovo più superficiali, rigide, perfino prepotenti. Ma non è una prerogativa di Milano: questa situazione riguarda l’umanità in generale, che sembra aver perso la sua sensibilità. La gente appare troppo occupata a pensare a sé per guardare chi le sta intorno e
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questo è un atteggiamento che a volte può condizionare anche il mondo del design. Penso che in questo ambiente la mentalità dovrebbe evolversi per capire meglio il mondo di oggi, per vedere come la produzione stia prendendo nuove direzioni, per avere rapporti più creativi con i designer. Si dovrebbe ritrovare un po’ il coraggio che ha caratterizzato gli anni sessanta, settanta o ottanta; opporre l’audacia contro il rischio di appiattimento su una generica idea di lifestyle… Il tempo, gli eventi Cerco di lavorare durante l’anno non focalizzandomi sulla deadline segnata dal Salone del Mobile. Se reputo un prodotto non pronto, preferisco chiedere all’azienda di posticipare la presentazione piuttosto che entrare sul mercato con un prototipo. I primi Saloni sono stati molto eccitanti per me ma ora li vivo diversamente; mi rendo conto di sentire la fatica di un evento che con il tempo è diventato davvero imponente, attirando un pubblico ampio e allargando i campi di interesse tanto da farmi sentire ogni volta non abbastanza forte per affrontarlo! Resta comunque un’occasione preziosa perché dà a questo paese energia per esistere e sopravvivere e porta in città nuovi stimoli. I valori dell’industria: un palcoscenico privilegiato Il mio atteggiamento è cambiato molto da quando sono arrivato in Italia. L’esaltazione degli inizi ha lasciato il posto alla serenità, una condizione che mi consente di essere più consapevole e avere la calma per comunicare con le persone a diversi livelli. I valori del distretto della Brianza resistono – la capacità ingegneristica e realizzativa, l’abilità di mantenere sempre un alto livello di qualità – ma a volte mi sembra si rincorra l’idea di produrre novità con ritmi incalzanti e più vicini a quelli della moda – mentre credo che il design abbia la necessità di tempi molto differenti. Sono comunque orgoglioso di essere qui e mi sento estremamente onorato di avere la possibilità di lavorare in questo settore sia nei momenti più positivi sia in quelli di difficoltà. Mi è stato dato un meraviglioso palcoscenico dove danzare e sono fortunato a essere uno dei ballerini di questo mondo. E quando sento di non essere in grado di esibirmi mi metto in disparte, per recuperare. Perché per me non è importante “ballare” a tutti i costi.
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50 MANGA CHAIRS (2016) sedia Per: Friedman Benda TWIG (2015) sedia Produzione: Alias H-HORSE (2016) cavallo a dondolo Produzione: Kartell
Oki Sato nasce in Canada, studia Architettura a Tokyo, ma è a Milano che decide di volersi dedicare al design: la visita al Salone del Mobile del 2002 gli rende evidente la possibilità di operare su scale diverse, in un ambito di grande libertà progettuale, e di ideare oggetti pratici, giocosi e sorprendenti. Nello stesso anno fonda quindi, con doppia sede a Tokyo, lo studio di design Nendo, ovvero “creta”, ispirandosi alla pasta modellabile per bambini con cui si possono plasmare forme e combinare colori: il design di Oki Sato si dimostra infatti duttile e dotato di un’attitudine ludica che fa apparire i loro pezzi immediati e facilmente approcciabili, come nel caso della serie di piccoli utensili da ufficio
prodotta da Kokuyo (Gloo, 2018) o della sedia Hell di Moroso (2013). Oki Sato si confronta, oltre che con il designo industriale, con progetti di allestimento e d’architettura, come la realizzazione della Cofufun Plaza a Tenri caratterizzata da elementi a disco ispirati alle antiche tombe della tradizione giapponese. In ciascun intervento Sato è in grado di attingere a un’intelligente vena ironica mediata dal contesto milanese e di porla in dialogo con la semplicità e un senso di vuoto e di non finito che considera essenza della cultura giapponese. Spiega inoltre Sato: “Quando penso di progettare qualcosa, penso alla storia da raccontare, guardo al racconto dietro l’oggetto. Ciò è abbastanza giapponese”.
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Narratives and relationships. Design stories between Milan and the world Anna Mainoli
This book arose from the desire to trace out an ideal promenade, a grand tour of Milan that reveals and clearly focuses on one of the many urban heritages – a heritage of production, creativity, social life and relationships, and therefore also a cultural substance of the city. It truly is a grand tour, not so much in the sense of education and train as in terms of direct knowledge. Which is to say that understanding Milanese design as a historicized, and at the same time vital phenomenon, the driving force behind great renewal, also means moving through the physical places where design is conceived and produced. While Milan has undergone and is undergoing transformation, and has acquired the allure of a small international metropolis, in a certain sense learning to show itself off, leaving behind the traditional urban bourgeois reserve to offer itself to fashion, the show-off, and the many events, the nightlife, it is also true that the introverted nature of the city and the buildings themselves, that modesty and avoidance of outer ostentation, the keeping of a deeper inner knowledge, the surprise of a physical, formal and cultural richness, is still part of the city’s DNA. And this character is often shared by the world of design, in the people, places, and studios that are sometimes hard to find. One needs to cross more than one courtyard and seek a former warehouse or an old artisan workshop, go down a few stairs into a basement, buzz intercoms and go through entrances and courtyards of the upper middle class buildings, going in on tiptoe – as if visiting a fine living room – to the beautiful apartments of modern Milan that have been turned into operational bases. They are often silent, or even better, quiet places where thinking is the priority. And they are spaces that almost never seek the sales show-room effect of aesthetic ostentation, because they are places for doing and as such, they welcome us. The discrete weaving of designers’ studios into the fabric of the city rarely involves a snobbish attitude but is instead the consequence of a focus on doing rather than showing, a dedication to design first and foremost, on which perhaps the inheritance of the masters of Milanese design is reflected, of professional ethics, of a discipline always aligned with a concrete sense of work – once again – all Milanese. In this sense, it can be confirmed that the designers’ studios are part of the Milanese design world’s demo-
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cratic character, bearers of a genetic heritage that is very different from that of the fashion world. The studios of designers and architects are places where a great deal of work, research and experimentation is done. They are immune to the idea of being an attraction for the many curious design addicts who pass through Milan. But they are open to an egalitarian confrontation with the city and discussion between professionals, journalists and curators. In many cases, they are cells that bear that sense of democratic and widespread participation that invades the city during the Salone del Mobile and seems to manifest suddenly, like a self-generated explosion, but is nothing more than a tenacious underground current coming to the surface, a current that runs through the city every day, connecting its physical parts and energies, and tirelessly developing relationships with the rest of the world. A mapping of design in Milan created through the places where the work of designers returns the image of the city’s densely woven network, its capillary nature, to the point that the work presented here, despite the huge number of designers, can only be a partial sample, an instantaneous image of a magmatic reality coming into being, because it is alive and vital. Tracing designers’ studios, physically, is equivalent to composing the framework of that widespread laboratory of design, creation, research and craftsmanship that is Milan. Another consequence of this cognitive process based on the geography of the city is a stronger awareness of the osmotic exchange that binds this large workshop with other systems equally widespread throughout the territory, the cream of industry and craftsmanship, true support pillars for the whole design system and whose essential nature clearly emerges from the words of the designers included in this book. The industrial area surrounding the city, what we could call a “design belt”, on the one hand, and the presence of highly specialized craftsmanship, on the other, are two of the fundamental reasons why Milan continues to be the ideal place to work and design. A system mainly consisting of medium-sized firms and therefore malleable and “adoptive”, responsive to the stimuli of designers and artistic directors, with roots in Milan but constantly in contact with the world. This organism composed of autonomous elements, which does not exclude competition but systemizes it, also lives off its force of attraction. It is a training base for
generations of professionals who come to learn the trade here taking nourishment from Milanese design culture, then continue elsewhere in their personal careers with this baggage. The same force of attraction brings many foreign designers here to work with firms, fostering dialogues and encounters between cultural matrices that are sometimes very different. The Salone del Mobile as a unique trade event, the Triennale as a cultural reference point and a debate, together make an indispensable industrial fabric in terms of the extremely professional content, and allow the paths of the community of Italian designers working outside the city or abroad to cross in Milan. The reach of this form of commuting enriches Italian design, which is hybridized by these external stimuli. This dynamic fosters various flows that converge on Milan, professionals trained abroad who come from Milan and Brianza regularly because here they find the skills, the “know-how” that can translate their ideas into reality, the young people studying in Milan, taking their first steps and then moving on to other shores where they can establish themselves professionally – while maintaining a crucial reference in Milan. These more or less regular flows, which follow their own paths, are united by a common denominator synthesized in one of these “migrants”, Paolo Cappello, who returned from Milan to Verona. He notes that “you can be a designer outside Milan, but you can not be a designer without Milan” – therefore, without the Salone,
without the contact with the firms and the production system, and without the cultural and human comparison it offers. An assumption that also applies to those who have not trained in Milan and work outside the city, because in Milan everyone finds themselves in one way or another. This also applies to a great ambassador of Italian design, Gaetano Pesce, Venetian by adoption, a leader in the world of that radical Italian approach – between design, architecture and artistic experience – that has given so much to Milan: particularly with that Florentine vein that fostered a dialogue between industrial and product design and research and the avant-garde. This world-renowned cosmopolitan shuttles between New York and Italy, with numerous works in various editions of Design Week. Connected by decades of collaboration with historical firms in the Milanese “district”, with whom he has worked on projects that have become design icons, he is clearly convinced that “Italy remains the leading design country for several reasons. Design is not only made by designers, but also industrialists, the sales representatives who carry the products around, and those who buy them, etc. Many young designers come to Italy because they are unable to make their creations in their countries because their industrialists are small-minded. For me, the future role of design will be to enhance the identity of places, and I would like it to speak not only of the author, but also of the place where the product is conceived, of the culture from which it comes, of the
Right: Riccardo Dalisi in his studio in Naples
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ENG
ISBN 978-88-99534-66-0
€ 98,00