Closing Inquires

William Mcafee Witherspoon: You talk about how you wish for nature to be more prevalent in our environment. What is your ultimate goal with this wish?

Annalisa: The question is what do we mean by nature? What is nature and how do we make nature known in our environment? I don’t know exactly what nature is, to understand that, I would have to research it with a biologist. There is one definition of nature I love very much, that is, nature is what is able to self manage in relation to its observer. This definition is crucial to me because it’s speaking about nature in terms of its behavior, not in terms of materials. Nature is plants, animals, have to research it with a biologist. There is one definition of nature I love very much, that is, nature is what is able to self manage in relation to its observer. This definition is crucial to me because it’s speaking about nature in terms of its behavior, not in terms of materials. Nature is plants, animals, insects, fungus, insects, fungus, and so on. The definition follows what nature does and not what it is. It’s not speaking about nature in terms of time, nature is what is original and untouched by man. This definition of nature has changed our very traditional ideas about nature, and that is the reason I love it. The ideas of nature are relative, and change with the circumstances of the observer. I think nature is everywhere, it can be the wind or rain, or the heat. It’s a matter of new relations. What is biological, what is not. What is leaving and what seems to be in the moment. Our question should not be where is nature, because nature is everywhere, but the question we should ask is how can we manage to design in collaboration with nature. and so on. The definition follows what nature does and not what it is. It’s not speaking about nature in terms of time, nature is what is original and untouched by man. This definition of nature has changed our very traditional ideas about nature, and that is the reason I love it. The ideas of nature are relative, and change with the circumstances of the observer. I think nature is everywhere, it can be the wind or rain, or the heat. It’s a matter of new relations. What is biological, what is not. What is leaving and what seems to be in the moment. Our question should not be ‘where is nature?’ because nature is everywhere. The question we should ask is ‘how can we manage to design in collaboration with nature?’

“Our question should not be ‘where is nature?’ because nature is everywhere. The question we should ask is ‘how can we manage to design in collaboration with nature?’”

Isaac List: Do you have any projects that you consider to be a failure but it ended up teaching you a lot?

Annalisa: For sure, there are many projects that turned out to be a failure. I think the most important one I designed was the Italian Pavilion in Venice about 12 years ago. We had the idea of transforming the Italian Pavilion into a sort of underfoot space. So we designed it to hold all different kinds of plants that you usually find under the canopy of trees, which corresponds to the title of the project “Bosco Italia” which means Italy under wood. While I am very happy with that project because it was long before the trend of putting plants inside, it was a failure because we wanted to keep the project in the same condition throughout the exhibition as it was when it started. The problem was that the exhibition was four months long, and we did not take into account that no one would be taking care of the site.

So, what happened? Everything died. It was horrible, we had pictures from the opening and it was very beautiful and fantastic, and after a month all that beauty was gone. If I were to make that same project today, I would completely rethink it. I would design it so that the transformation of the plants would be part of the design. Not only using the plants dying as part of the design, but also the transformation of the kind of plants used, and the different biological cycles. Even though it was a big failure, I understood a lot of things, and because of that, in the end I was happy. I am now more confident in the idea of designing with transformation, and with the idea of taking care of the design throughout its life. This is the difference between making an object and making a landscape. A landscape never ends, and so you need to think about the afterlife of the design and not just what is there at the start of its life.