M ichela B a r o n e L u m a g a Design with technology that plays by the rules of nature
CV & BIO
www.michelabaronelumaga.com
M ichela B a r o n e L u m a g a
www.michelabaronelumaga.com
Design with technology that plays by the rules of nature
EXPERIENCE
AWARDS \ ACADEMIC GRANTS
EDUCATION
APPOINTMENTS
2012 \ POND, The Brand Innovation Company \ STOCKHOLM Product Designer for Nobia’s kitchen concept development and innovation
2012-2013 \ MIT FELLOWSHIP, TATA CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN Frugal brick development for India. Received award for full MIT tuition
2011-2013\ MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, SMARCHS Master of Science in Architecture Studies
2012 \ TEACHING ASSISTANT MIT Architecture Core 2 Studio PLATFORMS FOR EXCHANGE: MULTITUDE, MEDIA AND MATERIAL. Joel Lamere & Ana Miljaki
2011 \ CINO ZUCCHI + Buro Happold \ MILAN Project architect for ENI Headquarters International Competition and Generali City Life urban housing, 2010 \ TERREFORM \ NEW YORK Researcher and project architect for residential expansion proposal in post-Katrina New Orleans 2009 \ GAS ARCHITECTS \ MILAN, ROME Project architect for clients including Generali Properties, Mangiavacchi Group, Sara Assicurazioni. Coordinated architectural design teams, led concept development, directed graphic production for client presentations, prepared construction drawings, interior design development, led all client contact, budget supervision and document production for housing and renovation projects 2009 \ OPTOFONICA PLATFORM FOR SYNESTHETIC MEDIA AND SOUND SPATIALIZATION \ AMSTERDAM Designer of immersive art projects. Managed technical feasibility and detailing for synesthetic installations. 2008-2006 \ JO COENEN & CO ARCHITEKTEN \ AMSTERDAM Design architect for ING Real Estate apartment buildings and office headquarters Designer of interiors and custom furniture during construction phase for OBA Central Public Library, Amsterdam 2000-1999 \ STUDIO AMDL, MICHELE DE LUCCHI \ MILAN
Junior architect for Poste Italiane image restyling. Created interior design and prepared CAD drawings and models
2013 \ CAMIT GRANT Grant from Council for the Arts at MIT in support of thesis design project 2012 \ MIT INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES FELLOWSHIP Research grant to develop design project in collaboration with Brazilian government
2005 -1999\ POLITECNICO DI MILANO, FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIETY Master of Architecture 2004-2003 \ UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA, ETSA \ VALENCIA Visiting scholar, Erasmus Program 2002-2001 \ UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO, ETSA\ SAN
2010 \ TEACHING ASSISTANT University of Politecnico di Milano, Department of Landscape Architecture 2010 \ TEACHING ASSISTANT Triennale TNT workshop “Leading on the Edge, design thinking workshop” with Swedish Brand Innovation Company POND
SEBASTIAN
2004-2005 \ TRIENNALE DI MILANO TRAVEL WORKSHOP AWARD Itinerant architectural design workshop at the IUAV in Venice, University of Roma Tre, University of Naples Federico II and Genoa Faculty of Architecture with architects A. Ferlenga, A. Aymonino, S. Boeri and G. La Varra
PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION 2013 \ Green Card holder 2006 \ “ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI” \ MILAN Licensed member and registered architect
EXHIBITIONS 2013 \ FINNISH ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, KAIKU GALLERY \ HELSINKI 2012 \ MIT MUSEUM “WAYS OF SEEING”\ BOSTON
Visiting scholar, Erasmus Program
2008 - Present \ ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR LOFT, The Scandinavian Bookazine
PUBLICATIONS
SKILLS
Fernando Romero and Fr-ee Enterprise, LOFT, Vol. III, 2013 A Toronto Symphony, Tod Machover Participatory Orchestral Opera LOFT, Vol. II, 2013 Larry Sass on Digital Fabrication, LOFT, Volume I, 2013 Mark Goulhtorpe of dECOI, LOFT, Vol. IV, 2012 Northern conversations with Cino Zucchi, LOFT, Vol. III, 2011 Mario Botta, 50 years in architecture, LOFT, Vol. I, 2011 12th International architecture exhibition Venice Biennale, LOFT, Vol. XV, 2010 Monumental Emotion: an interview with Massimiliano Fuksas, LOFT, Vol. XIV, 2010 Shape + color = sensation + stimulation: an interview with Karim Rashid, LOFT, Vo. XIII, 2010
Vectorworks, Autocad, Revit, Archicad, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, 3D max, Rhino, Grasshopper, ArcGIS
http://facesofdesign.com/report/sensation-stimulation-shape-colour
LANGUAGE Fluent in ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH; basic DUTCH and PORTUGUESE; native speaker ITALIAN
M ichela B a r o n e L u m a g a Design with technology that plays by the rules of nature
Michela Barone Lumaga is an architect and designer. She develops products that hold a different idea of the world. Believing in the creative potential of humanity, she designs objects and architecture whose imaginative production logic and basic structure allow further user customization. Her work aims to merge together the notions of technology and nature, using digital fabrication and craftsmanship, to generate new environmental perceptions. She believes that large scale issues can be changed with smart actions. Over the past two years she has collaborated with the Brazilian government in Rio de Janeiro to implement design workshops in slums and, as a fellow at the TATA Center for Technology and Design (MIT Energy Initiative), she implemented a digitally fabricated, masonry based, Pilot Home for India. Her thesis, “Public by Design: Auto-fabrication for a Contemporary Urban Physiognomy� proposes urban objects that can be designed and built by citizens and are catalysts of inter-species exchanges. As an educator, Michela held teaching assistant positions in design studios both at MIT and at Politecnico di Milano. Since 2008, she has been the Architectural Editor of LOFT, The Scandinavian Bookazine, a family-run cultural journal published in Sweden. She also interviewed contemporary architects and designers and has written several articles for the magazine. Michela holds two Masters degrees, one from Politecnico di Milano and the other from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since her graduation from Politecnico di Milano, Michela has worked internationally both in Europe and USA, collaborating with Jo Coenen Architects in the Netherlands, Cino Zucchi in Italy and Michael Sorkin in New York.
www.michelabaronelumaga.com
M ichela B a r o n e L u m a g a Design with technology that plays by the rules of nature
WORKS
www.michelabaronelumaga.com
P u b lic b y D e s ign: Auto-fabrication for a Contemporary Urban Physiognomy
Thesis Submitted to the Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the Degree in Master of Science in Architectural Studies (SMArchS). What shape will the public spaces of the future take? How can a novice or low skilled citizen participate to the building of his community and urban environment and learn about the necessary steps to positively modify his surroundings? Which is the agency to involve citizens in building public space?
CNC machining allow for a wider range of the population to physically design and build artifacts and imply a future scenario which could be described as a personal factory. CNC fabrication for the masses is also restricted, for the moment, to the production of small objects for home interiors. It is possible, however, to envision a future in which public involvement will invade the professional realm of urban design for cities. Today we should acknowledge the power of networked media and digital fabrication for their potential to physically build public good.
The revolution in modes of design and production anticipate a liberalization of material/fabrication that can potentially allow the masses to take control of the design of the urban space. Historically with each technical invention, writing, printing press, and video cameras, came not only the possibility for new creative practices but also the formation of the socio-political structures to allow such new praxis to mobilize and become effective. Technological advances of prototyping such as 3d printing and
To address the urban field, while keeping possible for the citizens to design and build the space of the city, this thesis designs fabricable and customizable prototypes of historical urban typologies of places that hold a public character (pavilions, fountains, rostra) and which limited scale allows fabrication and assembly without any special tooling or professional contractors. → Public by Design PDF
Fruga l B ric k Product development and prototyping of a brick for TATA Center for Technology and Design This research investigates India’s brick manufacturing methods to implement a new formula for a bagasse fly ash brick, and comprises of a discovery component in which brick shapes are tested to create wall patterns and to illustrate an innovative construction grammar. The Frugal Brick Project is sponsored by TATA and MIT Energy Initiative. This project endeavors to find fast, green, and intelligent building solutions to accommodate India’s rapid population growth. According to the United Nations Development Program in India, 140 billion bricks were produced during the
year 2000-2001. Brick production is estimated to be growing at a rate of 4% per year, 70% of which is through bull trench kilns. The industry employs 8 million workers. Approximately 500 sq Km of agricultural land is adversely affected by soil excavation (ranging from 0.5 to 2 meter depth) for material used in annual brick production. The objectives of the Frugal Brick Project are to mitigate and remediate the pollution associated with industrial waste, specifically paper mills in Muzzaffarnagar, India, while implementing a low cost construction product.
D ire c t M a nufa c turing Materializing design through digital fabrication
Digital fabrication in architectural design eliminates error in the construction phase by delivering components that are ready for assembly. Designed by 12 MIT students through an online collaborative work platform, this experiment aims to automatize building delivery, from concept to construction. The pavilion, with curved morphology, made of interlocking parts is entirely produced in a rapid-prototyping machine. Its components, plywood and plastic, are cut with C.N.C. machines and assembled by hand with rubber mallets. Every piece of the structure snap fits and no hardware are used in the construction. The 30 sheets of plywood used for the structure were cut in 15 hours, with a Ÿ� flat edge drill bit and a unit processing time of 20 minutes each. The pavilion was assembled in 12 hours and displayed at MIT Woodshop.
R io de J a ne iro C olle c tion Recombinant furniture made in collaboration with Brazilian artisans Furniture design in Brazil until 1945 shared two styles: rationalist, after the Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier, and organicist, mimicking North American esthetics. After 1950, Brazilians searched for their own national style. Some of these designers including Tenreiro, Lina Bo Bardi, and Azeredo inspired this work. I started a collaboration with Jose Marconi, a local woodworker, to develop instructional prototypes for my design workshop in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Every object is fabricated using Brazilian wood and vintage pieces. The prototypes reinterpret the visual vocabulary of the organic richness present in Rio de Janeiro, a city immersed in a tropical rain forest, and stems
from the Eclectic and Art Deco ornaments that decorate many of Rio’s buildings. The structural components of the furniture, reconfigured in asymmetrical shapes, are taken from the extensive antique collection of the wondrous warehouse of Mr. Marconi.
Fa bric a ndo M ove is Participatory design workshops for urban communities Fabricando Moveis facilitates collaboration between public social outreach agencies and private contractors, promoting local job growth in slums. Fabricando Moveis is a serie of design workshops developed in collaboration with Rio de Janeiro Government and PAC (Program de Aceleraรงao do Crescimiento). Rio de Janeiro is a city that builds incredibly fast. Demolition, renovation, and new construction are taking place in every street, square, and building. The margin of discarded wood, a primary and fundamental organic resource, is very high. Construction site workers build tables, chairs or benches with
the same wood used for concrete formworks; these objects then become the temporary furniture of their workspace. Fabricando Moveis, provides immediate, hands-on instruction and design classes for the indigent inhabitants of communities in close proximity to construction sites. It implements the use of recycled scrap wood to build objects for everyday life. (Photographs of selected student designs)
B a ptis te rium Immersive installation for synesthetic perceptions
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Baptisterium is an immersive installation which alters the habitual relationship between external and internal spatial awareness. It is a metaphorical construction of a sacred place where an initiation (or baptism) occurs, leading to the “mysterium.� Just as nature reveals itself through infinite vibrations, most of which are hidden to the ordinary senses, the Baptisterium environment aims to catalyze both vibration phenomena and perceptual mechanisms to envelope the audience in a multisensory and ritualistic experience. The visitors can stand, sit or lay on the specially crafted octagonal
fiberglass platform where low frequencies are translated into pure haptic sensation. Seven motorized panels, standing on the sides of the octagon and leaving one side open as entrance, function as dislocated sound-emitting and light-reflecting surfaces. Project developed in Amsterdam in collaboration with Optofonica & ::TeZ::
A nthropolis Interactive experience that promotes public awareness and a sense of community developed for MIT SENSEable City Lab Anthropolis illustrates the variety and heterogeneous mosaic of people in Rio de Janeiro’s public transit spaces, breaking the boundaries between the formal and informal city. The goal of this project is to change the conventional perception of the city as a physical territory with defined boundaries and to articulate a varied landscape that reflects the actions of the citizens and the way they live in the urban environment. The project promotes public awareness and a sense of community, disaggregating the physical and mental limits created by social beliefs, danger, criminality and corruption by blurring the frontiers that perpetuate social discriminations in the city. Anthropolis uses the retrieved individual data from Bilhete Unico to sensitize the urban population on the collective movement of the city. The recently introduced Bilhete Unico (BU) is the first inter-municipal ticket that gives a subsidy to
the passenger for the cost of the trip. When a tap happen at the gates of the analyzed subway station, household information is collected, engaging in the collective visualization that specific neighborhood were the owner of the tapped BU comes from. Anthropolis uses the Bilhete Unico technology to discover hidden types of spatial relations that implement and enrich connected sites and the urban population. The urban light mosaic will be installed in Botafogo station, offering to the passenger a new visual reading of their city. Anthropolis consists in several hundred strips of LED that are linked to the turnstiles of the subway and generate live a constant color shift that changes throughout the day according to the quantity of passengers and their provenance.
She d N a tion Design Strategy for the big - boxes of the future
Big-boxes populate the sprawling territories of US cities. This supersized citadels of logistic exchange deliver indeterminate aesthetic to their surroundings, yet contributing to the making of American landscape. This project is a response to the attempts of the communities to re-humanize the non-character of the big boxes in America and fight their flat appearance. The face of the big box marks a wave that varies both in curvature and in length; the facade becomes part of the landscape and blends with the territory. The arch tension that
define the building’s volume relates with the monumental scale of the project. The skin of the box consist of polycarbonate colored modular panels mounted on an aluminum structure that allow natural light to shine in the interior and savings in artificial illumination. The two volumes are connected through a shared office facility. The earth removed to dig the water retaining ponds creates undulated topologies that reshape the lot borders. The boxes measure 350,000 sq. ft. each and they are human rated for 200 people each.
WALL SECTION - vertical
FACADE DETAIL
Scale: 1/2" = 1'-0"
Scale: 1/2" = 1'-0"
EN I H e a dqua rte rs International Competition with Cino Zucchi Architetti Concept design for the new Exploration & Production Business Center for Italian oil and gas company Eni in Milan. The new center will have an area of 65,000 square meters, including 60,000 square meters of office space and 5,000 square meters for services. The project is centered on the central open space that organizes the buildings. The stellar plan of the buildings generates a continuous compenetration between the garden and work spaces, characterizing the entire intervention as “organism” instead of “machine”.
The layout of the brise soleil is determined by the facade’s orientation. The louver’s coloration on the inner side of the fin varies in the three buildings, reproducing ENI’s corporate palette. Role: Project architect and member of the competition.
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RELAZIONE Concorso per il centro direzionale Exploration & Production di Eni a San Donato Milanese
1
C ity Life Invitational competition with Cino Zucchi Architetti
The two plots on the north-east corner of the CityLife area face simultaneously different edge conditions. Their position represent a link between the city fabric built in time around the old Milano’s Fair precinct and the new set of central spaces. The attention to the existing morphology of the surrounding neighborhood establishes strategic directions which are also long-reaching in terms of sun exposure, views toward the landscape, soil occupation and design of common open spaces. The evolution of lifestyles has brought up new issues in housing: the desired higher quality of private outdoor spaces, the increased presence of information technology in the house,
the weakening of the distinction between home and workspace, the higher degree of informality and the spreading of a “loft” living model have all been taken into account as elements of reform of well-established typological models. Proposal for CityLife Residences, Lots Rd and Re , Role: Project Architect and member of the competition team.
S/12 Office building with Jo Coenen & Co
Office building in the Parmavera residential development, located in the south west corner of the area. Plot and urban scenario define the building in two independents triangular bodies, divided and separated by form and function: the commercial ground floor volume and the four offices floors. The built volume occupies a C shaped plan, mirrored every two stories; this creates light voids, wide terraces and improves the relation with the site. Technical shafts and toilets are adjacent to the stairwell. All internal partitions are conceived as movable to
allow the flexibility required by the client.The facade presents modular sliding panels of ceramic louver. This 18.300 sq ft (1.700 sq mt) headquarters project was developed for ING Real Estate in Parma, Italy. Role: Project architect
O B A A ms te rda m Public Libra ry Interior design of library restaurants with Jo Coenen & Co Popular restaurant at the top floor of the new public library of Amsterdam. The dining area counts 240 seats indoor and 40 seats on the panoramic terrace. Custom made furnishing pieces and the lighting are specially designed for the location.
This 21.520 sq ft (2.000 sq mt) restaurant has been developed for Amsterdam Local Authority and La Place restaurants Role: project architect and interior designer
Puus ilta M us e um International Competition for the Serlachius Museum Extension in Finland In 2011 the Serlachius Museum, which hosts a large private fine art collection in Finland, launched a competition for its 32.291 sq ft (3.000 sq mt) expansion. The Serlachius Museum Manor is surrounded by a private park which includes the Taavetinsaari island, a wild garden with historical ruins covered by a characteristic birch forest. The proposed museum addition, through its linear configuration and ramps shaped along the timber structure, marks a promenade from the historic
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exhibitions spaces to the Nordic landscape of the adjacent island. Delivery and the emergency flows are designed to not intersect with the exhibition spaces. Public and private facilities are kept separated yet beneficiating of common hubs such as restaurant and the assembly hall bar.
G a tta me la ta Housing renovation feasibility study for GAS Architects Housing competition for renovation of an office complex located near the former Milan’s Fair. This project consisted of redesigning 1950’s office space for modern residential use. All circulation distribution has been readapted to the new plans. The volume of the entire building has been increased by anchoring to the existing structure modular, prefabricated wooden boxes. To increase the value and quality of the flats every floor has been connected with the one above, creating
duplex apartments. The first floor has been organized to divide public and private passageways through the complex and to create private gardens for every inhabitant living on the lower levels. To revitalize the neighborhood the entire ground floor was redesigned to host commercial activities. Gattamelata is a 118.400 sq ft (11.000 sq mt) housing competition for Generali properties Asset Management SPA Role: project architect collaborative project GAS Architects
Sfuma tura M obile Light Installation for the MIT Museum
Sfumatura Mobile is an installation commissioned by the MIT Museum for a light and design exposition named “Way of Seeing”. This project integrates a sculptural component with technology. Each of the two panels is made by insulating closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam with gypsum plaster and a finish coat of gesso. The panels are digitally fabricated using the C.N.C. milling machine. Each 40”x 40”panel is illuminated by a moving spotlight. The kinematic of the motorized light interacts with the molded curvature: the qualitative definition of shadow on the plastic surface is created by the motion of the light source. The concept of the installation relies on human
perception, subverting the conventional, visual understanding of shape and form. British neurologist, E. Warrington, demonstrated that human vision interprets space, shape and spatial arrangement. The work of D. Marr from the Artificial Intelligence laboratory at MIT engaged the question on how constant perception in everyday life is obtained from continually changing stimuli: the senses are channels for perceiving the outside world and the interpretation of it is strictly tied to information processing. The installation is an abstract representation of this everchanging sensory process.
P u blicati o n s Interviews Sample
art
Anne Thulin Henrik Strömberg
architecture Larry Sass Boris Bernaskoni Interboro
design
Pop Art Design Recycled in Dakar Kenya Hara Stockholm’s Greenhouse
culture
Anders Kumlander Gothenburg Film Festival Tree houses Matera, Italy Minna Forssberg
& travel Bolivian safari
An interview with Larry Sass, LOFT, Vol. I, 2013
[...}MBL: The ubiquitous presence of the Internet and information technology, online collaborative working platforms, globally shared digital design, crowdsourced funding and personal factories for 3D-printing objects are changing the values of architects and designers. What are the values that you apply in your professional and research practice, and what is it that you seek to change? LS: The values I apply to research are based on the expectation that we all work on-line. We will design together across disciplines and across scales (from product design to architecture). The future will demand that most anyone will have some skill in design the same way we are expected to write. There will always be differences between novice and expert; however not everything will need to be produced by experts. Looking back, there was a time when all students were required to have typing experience, and typing was taught in middle and secondary school classes. As a boy in New York, I learned how to type with speed and accuracy and was taught an understanding of grammar, [...]
arT
Tod Machover C laes Oldenburg
arcHIT ecTure
G ert Wingårdh Mark G oulthorpe Thorbjörn Andersson
DesIGn
Inga Sempé Alberto Alessi Paola Suhonen Mischer&Traxler
InTerIors & cuLT ure
Arne J acobsen SPARK Singapore
Vol 1 2012
Vol 1 2013
Vol 1 2013
Larry Sass is an architect, professor, and director of the MIT Digital Design and Fabrication Group in the Department of Architecture. His research focuses on design fabrication, computer modelling and rapid prototyping as tools to innovate design and manufacturing processes. One of his projects, a digitally-fabricated house for post- Katrina New Orleans, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in the summer of 2008 for the exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.
Marcus J ernmark Schizoid screens LifeStraw Spanish Hollywood
S EK 189, EUR 18.50, G BP 16.50, US D 27, C AD 28, AUD 29
001 Cover Vol 1-2012.indd 1
Vol 1 2012 12.04.04 12.36
A Toronto Symphony, Tod Machover Participatory Orchestral Opera LOFT, Vol. II, 2013
While disciplines such as architecture and design are exploring how to surpass ancient practices of conventional design modalities, others, like music, have already successfully opened their creation doors to the public, crosspollinating with different artistic fields, transforming and refreshing their means through collective sharing practices. Tod Machover, Professor of Music & Media at the MIT Media Lab and Director of its Opera of the Future group, is the composer of A Toronto Symphony (http://toronto. media.mit. edu) a crowd-sourced, collaborative orchestral opera. Machover, whose work lies at the intersection of participatory art and technology, has devoted part of his research efforts to creating tools and objects which allow untrained people to create pieces of music. [...] MBL: How did the project in Toronto start, and what were the turning points while developing it? TM: The project started because the Toronto Symphony Orchestra contacted me about one year and a half ago, asking me if I wanted to be the curator of their New Creations Festival. The music director and the people who run it are creative and open-minded, and orchestras in general are promising these days because they are in an urban scene, and they should represent a place to bring people together. But they are also ocean liners instead of smart cars – very large and very conservative – and they have a social and financial model which is from 100 years ago. So now they are starting to think about how they might change. When Toronto came to me, I knew we could try something interesting and we decided to make the festival around the future of the orchestra. [...]
The Nordic BOOKAZINE creativity in Nordic & international cultures
The
N O r d I c B OO K A Z I N E
art
The fairness of art fairs Sto pmak in gsen se Tom Friedman § Tom LeWitt
architecture Thomas Rau Pezo Copenhagen concert hall
design Marcel Wanders Werner Aisslinger Elisa Astori Karim Rashid
&
Becky Anderson Heremoscopium
Vol 13 ’10
ISSN 1654077014 ISSN 1654077014
11> 11>
9 771654 077014
Printed in Sweden
9 771654 077014
SEK 189, EUR 18.50, GBP 16.50, USD 27, CAD 28, AUD 29
Vol 13 2010
Shape + color = sensation + stimulation: an interview with Karim Rashid, LOFT, Vol. XIII, 2010
SENSATION + STIMULATION = SHAPE + COLOUR
de si gn 111 by Michela barone luMaga Photos courtesy KariM rashid inc.
MAGPIE dinner set
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henomena constitute the world as we experience it. Every human-made object is designed. What surrounds us in cities and metropolis is mostly made by collaboration between humans and machines. Karim Rashid works with perception and industries. His peculiar vision produces challenging design that stimulates the human being in a deeper way, breaking the ordinary and obsolete patterns of sensation and recognition. His work goes far behind the simple expression of what comprises the object; he produces an experience. He produces phenomena. The substance of all the phenomena, objects, and spaces developed by Karim Rashid has an evolved and futuristic significance.
This interview was recorded in New York in February 2010. Michela Barone Lumaga: The task of the designer is to design artificial environment: from objects to spaces. Each design corresponds to the idea that one has of life, of society and of the relations between the individual and society [Ettore Sottsass] Let’s begin with the beginnings, in your early studies you had peculiar personalities such as Gaetano Pesce and Ettore Sottsass as teachers, how has this influenced you? Karim Rashid: My professors were German and Dutch, they had antithetical theories and ideologies to those of Gaeteno and Ettore. But my father was a painter and artist, Gaetano and Ettore too. So I was very at ease with the way they were perceiving creation. I learned higher sensitivity, how I could touch somebody’s soul with design or an art piece, they were so poetic. Neither of them had much tolerance with industry. As creative people, they had a special approach to invention and production: they would be
Phenomena constitute the world as we experience it. Every human-made object is designed. What surrounds us in cities and metropolis is mostly made by collaboration between humans and machines. Karim Rashid works with perception and industries. His peculiar vision produces challenging design that stimulates the human being in a deeper way, breaking the ordinary and obsolete patterns of sensation and recognition. His work goes far behind the simple expression of what comprises the object; he produces an experience. He produces phenomena. The substance of all the phenomena, objects, and spaces developed by Karim Rashid has an evolved and futuristic significance. [...] MBL: We see a visionary as a person who is given to audacious, highly speculative, or impractical ideas or schemes; a dreamer. Speaking about archetype and prototype (from ancient Greek protos: first, type: model), can you say how you picture and visualize the ‘post-type’ in the future (I made up this new word which means the future type, the futuristic model, the utopian possible mould); what do you think will be the ‘post-typical’ object of the future? KR: I realize that we have shaped the world via industry; 90% of our world is made by machines. A very small amount is still made by hand. Architectural shift and shapes depend upon production technology to make architecture. Likewise, the ‘post-type’ you’re talking about will have a lot to do with the shift of technology. For example let’s look at an archetype as the mobile phone. The mobile phone is an extension of the walkie-talkie, which is an extension of the land-line phone [...]