Moka Express by Alfonso Bialetti - File 3

One Hundred Years of Italian Products

PADOVA. 

Title: Moka Express
Year: 1933
Designer: A. Bialetti
Company: Bialetti

The coffee icon: this octagonal coffee maker inspired by futurism has represented the standard for more than 70 years. More than 250 million have been sold.

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Tavolo in vetro by Pietro Chiesa - File 2

One Hundred Years of Italian Products

PADOVA. 

Title: Tavolo in vetro (Glass table)
Year: 1932
Designer: P. Chiesa
Company: Fontana Arte

Timeless transparency: a product characterised by an extreme purity of form, full of charm and ethereal as the air.

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Lampadario 0024 di Gio Ponti - File 1

One Hundred Years of Italian Products

PADOVA. 

Title: Lampadario 0024
Year: 1932
Designer: G. Ponti
Company: Fontana Arte

A marriage of tradition and innovation: in this lamp by Gio Ponti the charm of traditional craftsmanship joins forces with the first modern Italian design.

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One Hundred Years of Italian Products

The history of Italian design in 100 collectible files

PADOVA.  Cento Anni di Prodotto Italiano (One Hundred Years of Italian Products) shows how Italian industry managed to respond, effectively and with originality, to the challenge of innovation. It highlights the skill and care that characterise the work of the Scuola Italiana Design, involved with developing and promulgating the culture of design and of “Italian Style”.

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Every week we’re offering the file of one of the 100 products that are part of our memories: or rather, a hundred products that are “testimonials” to the contribution made by design together with industrial manufacturing procedures and mass production to the quality of life in the recently concluded twentieth century.
One hundred products indicated and selected by a multitude of people, who have learned to recognise them, having come into contact with them virtually on a daily basis in the course of their lives, and who also included, or pigeonholed among these memories, some objects which albeit after a long period of active life are by now “out of production”, because they associated them with a particular moment in their lives.

Our goal is to discover anew the aesthetic and functional values of the products and of Italian design which ensured the success and spread of our industrial culture throughout the world.

CREDITS

• Editorial Project and Coordination: Massimo Malaguti e Giorgio Pellizzaro
• Graphic Design: Lisa Pravato - SID creActive Lab
• Texts: Massimo Malaguti

LE SCHEDE

1. Lampadario 0024 by Gio Ponti
   
2. Mirror Glass by Pietro Chiesa
   
3. Moka Express by Alfonso Bialetti
   
4. May 24
   

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Saloni 2013 |  Fuorisalone, big designers at Vondom

Ito, Lovegrove and Novembre explore the outdoor universe

MILANO.  Among the event of the recent design week in Milan, we have to mention the evening meetings of FuoriSalone. We take this opportunity to show you some interesting pictures of one of them, Vondom.

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Great designers gave their contribution to the realization of this event, which took place on April 9th at Termemilano, close to Porta Romana. Party, cocktails and press conference were the main moments towards the discovery of a new concept of the outdoor universe.

Pictures:

• photo 1: VASES collection, designed by JMferrero
• photo 2: BIOPHILIA collection, designed by Ross Lovegrove
• photo 3: UFO collection, designed by Ora Ito
• photo 4: PEA COCK collection, designed by Eero Aamio
• photo 5: F3 collection, designed by Fabio Novembre
• photo 6: ADàN collection, designed by Teresa Sapey
• photo 7: PILLOW collection, designed by Stefano Giovannoni

Thanks for the photos to: Valentina Romani, 2nd year student

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Saloni 2013 |  The office becomes living space

Top and flop of the SaloneUfficio 2013

MILANO.  SaloneUfficio is an event organized every two years within Salone del Mobile in Milan, it’s the fair specialized in the office furniture. The 2011 edition was the first after a huge renewal of the exhibition concept but suffered the weight of the dominance of the competitor fair, Orgatec in Koln.

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SaloneUfficio tried to propose concepts linked to a cultural and systemic vision of the office. The 2011 theme was “Office Creative Factory”, but it was not so much creative. New energies and quality sources entered the field for the 2013 edition, with the theme “Office for Living”.

The main symbol of this new revival was the project “Office for Living” curated by Jean Nouvel, an exhibition which told the office environment through the eyes of the great French architect and designer, who has lots of experiences in workplace design, with Italian companies too. The mounting was well cared and the furniture very contemporary, in particular it answered the need to obtain workplaces from areas born with other functions, such as old apartments in the city center, study rooms of our house, industrial warehouses. There was also space for the theme of dynamic and customizable workplace, once again by analyzing the cultural connotations rather than the technical ones.
Famous names such as Michele De Lucchi, Ron Arad, Marc Newson and Philippe Starck proposed their own idea of office and we could also find historical design pieces of office furniture.

The companies weren’t asked to present new techniques or products (it was almost impossible due to the proximity to Orgatec of last October), so they could focus on new systems and cultural proposals of the office environment by following a track, that was the project “Office for Living” by Jean Nouvel, that was stronger and effective than the too much technicist “Office Creative Factory” in 2011.

Often, the result of the exhibits of the companies was simply the addition of an informal meeting area (or relax/privacy area) to the traditional operational area. It’s a “fashion” solution in recent workplace design projects, but there were also more complex and empathic examples of systemic and cultural experimentation for the contemporary office.

In general, SaloneUfficio is clearly focused on two main ideas: the first one is to make the fair attractive to a larger public compounded also by non-experts, the second one is to offer to the professionals advanced contract integrated solutions, also with the collaboration among more companies. These goals seemed to be reached: the first one in particular thanks to the museum-type exhibit by Jean Nouvel and the proximity with the Salone Satellite; the second one thanks to the more and more constant attention given by the companies to two important issues for integrated solutions, ie lighting and acoustics.

SaloneUfficio 2013 analyzed the present but there still wasn’t a vision of the future. There were not analysis and experimentation on quickly evolving workplace phenomena such as coworking/nomadic working, and there were not proposals in support of advanced digitalization in public administration and large organizations with more traditional administrative and operational needs. The companies prefer not to risk and propose transverse operational solutions and informal ideas directly inherited from the trend of home furnishing.

In conclusion, this SaloneUfficio regained lost ground in the past and presented a potentially interesting role, but it still showed fears and uncertainties of the crisis, which highlighted the difficulties of an industry that traditionally, in particular in Italy, does not shine for cultural and strategic vision.


Know more:

• SaloneUfficio 2013
• SaloneUfficio 2011
  

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Alessandro Barison
Pictures: Press Office Cosmit

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Saloni 2013 |  Here's our special mag!

Reports, inteviews, comments: download your personal issue

PADOVA.  What SID Pills and Scuola Italiana Design students collected at 2013 Salone del Mobile is now published within the special mag we made for this occasion. Enjoy reading!

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Saloni 2013 |  A full interview with Daniele Lago

The designer talked with SID students at the fair in Rho

MILANO.  We meet Daniele Lago in the stand of his company. Lots of people around him – design lover Marco Columbro among them.

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Daniele, what have you done this year at Salone?

We’ve made a lot of things: Lago was subdivided into 3 locations, the first one is the stand where we present the new products and the partnerships related to our interior projects.

What kind of new products?

Not just furniture: for example, we also designed upholstery. We developed a wall paper that seems illuminated by light, but actually it simulates the entry of light.
We also presents a range of objects made together with a network of Italian craftsmen.

Where are the other locations?

It’s our apartment in zona Brera: we’ve organized 2 workshops there, making it a sort of lab: on one side craftsmen and makers build every day the range of objects, on the other side we launch a community of architects at an international level.

Do you have an idea you want to give to young designers and students?

To me, design means to have an idea of the World, so first of all young people must understand what kind of world they want. Once they did it, they can think at new processes, products and services.

A lot of culture and a global idea of how the world works?

I always suggest to dig into you and to understand what you want to do once adults. In this period of historical crisis I think it’s fundamental being able to re-think the whole world. The rest is just details.

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20 years 20 questions |  Federica Fulici

“Irony and neatness in my research of self-produced golden jewels”

VENEZIA.  Federica Fulici is one of SID graduates of the first Master in Industrial Design, held by Scuola Italiana Design in 1991/1992. She told us what she’s doing today, in particular about her project “Abbassa la Cresta”, developed in 2008.

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1. Name and Last name?
Federica Fulici.

2. Name of the project?
Golden ring “Abbassa la Cresta”.

3. Your best own strenght?
Curiosity.

4. Your “best” own weakness?
A latent anxiety.

5. Favorite movie/book/software/genre?
 “The Lives of Others” is the movie. The book is “The Wall” by J.P. Sartre. Software: Rhinoceros.

6. Journey still to make?
It’s called Far Oceania and it includes Micronesia.

7. Where do you live and work now?
My main office is in Venice.

8. When did you graduate at SID?
It was the year of foundation of the school, so it was full of that enthusiasm of new adventures and experimentations.

9. Is there a story at SID you remember with pleasure?
Many years have passed, but I can tell that a friendship born during the Course led me to win the 1992 Young&Design. A classmate of mine gave me a project for a new CD holder, in order to renew the products range of his furniture company.

10. Scuola Italiana Design for you... in three words!
The beginning of an adventurous path. I came from a degree in architecture. The School let me pass “from the city to the spoon”; in that period I used to deal with urban systems at the University.

11. A word of advice to those who are experiencing the school now?
Never leave research and study, Design is not a performance which end in itself.

12. A provocative question: why is your project more beautiful that others?
Because it’s the final result of a personal research on the general concept of “jewel” and because the simplicity of the product refers to an idea of “preciousness” given by the quality of the project and by the thought which produced it.

13. What is it? Tell us like we don’t know anything at all.
It’s not a technologically complex object, but it’s a “ring”, a decorative element for your body, so it’s easy to understand it. It’s an unique ring which can deform and make the decoration and the support formally continuous.

14. And now, describe it again trying to convince us to buy in up to ten words.
It’s an easily portable object (the relationship with the hand has been verified by the project), and it’s made with gold: as we know, it’s always a safe investment!

15. How did you get the idea to develop this project?
“Abbassa la cresta” is part of a jewels range born from a line of research I did a few years ago. I was interested in the exploration of the world of jewelry design by discovering the features which distinguish it from the Art Jewel. The final result was a range of products characterized by a certain simplicity of the shape, but also by a kind of ironic message, which I think belongs to my personality.

16. Have you dedicated it to someone?
No one in particular, but its name lends itself to some ironic reference.

17. How do you feel to be in the top 40 SID designers 1991-2011?
To be the top is always a pleasure, of course!

18. Your next project?
I am working on radiant equipments. It’s a new field, with interesting design developments.

19. Almost at the end: where are you going at the end of this interview?
In Micronesia, of course!

20. A quote to close in effect?
Put your certainties in danger.

• Read the previous interview: Luca Centofante

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Where there were trains... today the ideas flow

The history of High Line told by Antonio Padovan

NEW YORK, USA.  Manhattan west side is historically characterized by an industrial development despite the rest of the island is busy of offices and flats. Here there were the great factories of New York City, the heart of a city which was growing at a frantic pace at the beginning of the last century.

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1. The origins: Penn Station

Today, most of those factories and stores have become lofts, luxury flats, and the great spaces free from the assembly lines have hosted the most important art galleries of the USA.
Once in this area was the glorious Penn Station, one of the two railway stations which connect the Island to the rest of the American continent - once was the Beaux Art palace, today is still in full swing, but entirely buried under the Madison Square Garden.
In the 20s this station was the beginning of the High Line, a railroad suspended 10 meters abouve the 9th Avenue, where trains loaded with food and goods ran.

Before High Line, freight trains ran on rails at street level. The number of accidents caused by the coexistence of cars, pedestrians and trains was so high that the stretch of 9th Avenue was renamed “mile of death”. Before building the High Line, the city even tried to hire men on horseback to warn pedestrian of the passage of the trains (the 9th Avenue Cowboys).

The new and expensive high railway connected the station with the major factories of the West Side (most of them had tracks crossing their second floor, where the private platforms for loading and unloading were), the meat market (today it’s the Apple Store) and to SoHo stores (today a great shopping centre).
The massive infrastructure would become the urban masterpiece of a limitless city.

2. The end of an era

However, a few years laters, train was replaced by trucks for commercial transports.
After 30 years, 75% of the goods in the USA traveled on the road and the High Line, gradually less used, was closed and partially demolished. The remaining part for years was lying along the two kilometers, south of Penn Station, inside and outside the various building, as a huge dead snake. Rusty.

Over the years, the nature regained its space, and the seeds carried by the wind gradually gave rise to an unbelievable vegetation, which prospered wild over the old rails, just a few meters over the heads of unsuspecting New Yorkers.
Towards the end of the 90s, the city collected sufficient funds to complete the demolition, began more than 50 years before.

Two friends, living in this area and fans of the old railway, had the idea to turn the High Line in the first elevated park of the world… that was what nature has done for years without any incentive!
In 2011, after long legal battles against the city and billions of dollars spent in donations for the work, two thirds of the new park were opened to the public. The whole work should be completed by 2015, for a 2 km total, from 14th Street to 34th Street.

3. The rebirth: High Line Park

The new design (as for every public New Yorkers work it won an online completion voted by citizens), highlights the history of the park by keeping the details of the old rails, and follows the ideas Mother Nature had: the rich flora changes through the season, always turning  the most beautiful promenade in New York City for many.

Meanwhile, West Side has become the favorite destination of the great IT companies, and also of the best restaurants and art galleries. The largest building in New York, few steps away from the High Line, hosts Google East Coast headquarters, and a few weeks ago the company “gave” free WiFi to the whole district. eBay, Amazon and many other small and big IT companies moved near the High Line, transforming the area in one of the trendiest districts in New York.

Where once were the trains laden with goods, today it’s a wonderful green park where ideas flow.


Antonio Padovan


Know more:

• High Line official website
  
• An interview with Antonio Padovan
  

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