Research Team
YEAR FOUR OF THE STUDY.
GRUPPO QUATTRO.
WHAT WAS REMARKABLE THIS YEAR? TWO THINGS:
First; a great group who made studying abroad a joy and, second; the value of being able to see things change incrementally over time.
Without a doubt the greatest thing about ItaliaDesign is working with fine students who make me better, who challenge me to do my best, and who push the work forward. These are students who really are a pleasure to work with and to get to know so well. ItaliaDesign is not a “trip” so much as it’s a one year commitment. Students apply in December each year, begin the context course, IAT 391, a few weeks afterwards in January, travel to Italy for the in-field portion and return to work in fall term to crunch the data – the results of which is this website and it’s content. We enjoyed making it and we hope that you enjoy it. But, it’s a lot of work, and a big, year-long commitment to something. Every student this year was up for that challenge. When we finish the fall course, it is December again and they’ve been working together on this and with me, for a full year. And then, a new team is formed and begins their own contribution.
In our last days in Milan the morning before our final interview I tried to express to these people how much their commitment meant to me. It was hard to say it and not get “verklempt”. Each student just for starters makes an enormous financial commitment and in many cases their parents help shoulder this load, because they believe in their kids. I think in the end they get “value”, but nonetheless when you add the commitment, times twelve, it’s a lot of commitment. Students also commit to a code of conduct that keeps us all on track and keeping the learning space clear and open for all. Students are selected for their ability to be able to “keep it cool” in field. This group did this, and kept it fun all the time. They worked hard when it was time to work (and any student who has ever taken a course with me knows that this study like all my courses is WORK), and they played nicely and with passion. I had to enforce individual work in Florence this year as they were actually spending, in a curious way, TOO MUCH time together! When students had issues they brought them to me and sought counsel and each time were able to keep moving. This maturity is not to be underestimated.
It was really a joy to work with this group. I am very grateful to them.
Being on the same page allowed us to really experience things fully without distractions. Favorite moments for me this year were in innovating our post-interview immediate, “what did we learn” sessions within minutes of completing our interviews. We took a free step or bench and shared thoughts trying to make sure we recalled all that had happened in an attempt to accurately capture the magic that happens in those sessions. I remember Woojin holding a microphone out as we all passionately recalled the ideas the designers shared with us. Caleb Buxton, who did this study in 2006, described this energy in this way: “Leaving interviews with an unfortunately rare explosion of ideas was like being carried by lightning”. Right on. Paul would capture something, Heather another, Natalie would put it another way, Wayne would capture the essence, Clarisse would mention something we all forgot, Wooj would see it in a way we missed, Nate would find a long way to expand this (!), and so it would go.
I was so inspired by the people we spoke to this year,
Francesca Appiani at the Alessi Museo opened up her world for us and shared her passion for Alessi and it’s history. Seeing prototypes of Aldo Rossi and Mendini and hearing her tell their stories was for me the greatest joy. Slipping us into the factory was a treat the students never expected. Seeing the giant plastic-injection molds at B+B Italia and speaking with Federico Busnelli made me appreciate B+B in new ways. It was fantastic to have the interview start and Signor Busnelli looking like he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could, and within 20 minutes began to realize the preparedness and intelligence of our team such that we won him over and he was glad to get in and pull apart the Zaha Hadid couch.
Franco Dominici at Segis I consider to be a great mentor to me. He is the ultimate Tuscan gentleman. I am so astounded by his hospitality and his bottomless passion for design and his company. The Segis company feels more to us like a family now, I am grateful to Manola and all the staff who try to keep Franco from taking us home! I don’t believe that I have ever met a more generous man. We drove away up the hill to San Gimignano in utter silence. Not a single person spoke. He does not know that. But he utterly blew these students away, again. Aldo Cibic was so open, so relaxed that he made us all feel that way and we just tossed around great ideas for an hour. It was stunning. Francesco Mendini helped us to understand subtleties that only a great maestro can. His smile and laugh are etched in my mind- it is clearly a common trait with the two brothers as Alessandro Mendini also leaves you with this impression, joy.
I have always wanted to go up to Meda to see the Cassina factory. It was one of the things which were first on my list when I began this study. Seeing the full plant allowed us to see and understand Italian QUALITY in ways that are unforgettable. Isao Hosoe had the students laughing and at the edge of their seats, again and it was so great to get him on tape this year. Isao teaches us to think and reminds us that design without ideas is not worth doing. We saw Isao after our interview that morning with Alberto Meda. Meda is my new hero. He is the consummate designer. He is perhaps the greatest Industrial Designer I have ever met. It felt like an honor. James Irvine had insisted the previous year that we must see Meda, and now we know why. Meda of course works perhaps best with his colleague Paolo Rizzatto at Luceplan. Paolo actually TAUGHT us all how to design lighting in an hour where you could hear a pin drop. We saw a man’s lifework on one subject, how it evolved, but never deviated from the same essence, never wavered from an insistence on understanding technology as a resource for only producing that which is TRULY new. Monica Favara and Costanza Calvetti at Industreale/OneOFF have become part of our network. They astound us with the imaginative extensions of the 3d printing and rapid prototyping technologies but even more so by their understanding of open-source and networking. We felt simpatico and that our relationship will inevitably grow over time. Costanza is just one of those people who “gets it” and whom we feel will emerge as an important player in the next generation of Milanese designers and manufacturers.
My friend Michele Rossi at Park Associati is the only designer who we have interviewed each of the four years we have run the program. In other words he has gladly shared all his ideas with over 60 students. We never run out of things to talk about. He’s been such a great supporter and believer in what we do. He has helped us to understand the system of Italian Design in a way we would be lost without. It has been a great pleasure to see this young firm growing and now seeing competitions going their way and really great projects being built and underway. He’s a designer for the 21st Century: flexible, open, global, multi-disciplinary. And a hell of nice guy. Carlotta de Bevilacqua again inspired us at Danese. God, we’re pulling for Danese. If design should be about ideas, Danese is the heart of design. Carlotta is perhaps the most brilliant person I have ever known. Having the chance to see a new prototype before production whose form is not yet worked out was like seeing a mind at work. And she is the biggest believer in and supporter of the great Enzo Mari, that alone is a reason to love her. Her gift of Mari’s “pera” to me hangs now in my dining room next to his “mela”. Both prints from 1966 that every day inspire my world. Grazie bella. Lastly, we need to finish by speaking of Massimo Banzi who shared to whole days with us. How am I so lucky that I meet such amazing people? Italians can be the most generous people. Massimo is this quality incarnate. He and Gianluca took us through the Arduino production facility and the PCB factory and then he sat down for our final interview of the 2007 study. Massimo is a great teacher. I can only imagine how lucky those students at Ivrea were to work with him. I feel that the work the two of us will do together has just begun.
In essence what we learned from all of this is the great gift of the study: being able to see things change incrementally over time. It has been amazing to see Roma making a push at becoming a new innovation economy. They aren’t a Buenos Aires success story yet, but the growth and energy has grown so much in Rome over our four years of studying this great city. I feel also here that there is so much more yet to be done in our work. The day Zaha’s MAXXI opens will be evidence of the patience of working in Rome. Milan’s astounding simultaneous development of multiple urban scale Post-industrial sites will transform that city. It will be an amazing experience to see this shift play out over time. Much of the rest of Italy, we hope, alternatively, will NOT change! From Italia we learn quality, and patience, and slowness, and beauty so profound that tears have been known to flow. It is such a joy to share this Italy with my students, and have her change them, the way she changed me, long ago when I first traveled there on a bike in the early 1980’s. I have been back now many times and so I have this sense of change that would be impossible to understand unless you live there or were also a repeat traveler. I know that Italy is changing. Some of it makes my heart break. As a student in Florence in the early 1990’s I spent languid hours in book-binding and leather binding shops all down the central streets not far from the Piazza della Signoria. Now, there are maybe four of these left, replaced by brand chains selling the same stuff you can buy at the local mall. I know that the seventy-eight students who have now done this study with me will return and they will notice these changes themselves. I am so proud that they got to see some of this before it goes forever, as Italy is not static, it like the rest of the world, is moving at an inexorable pace that will not stop. Tourists may inevitably take over the whole place. But then, Italy has seen invasions before, and for 3000 years it has survived and prospered, and I suspect it will continue to do so. And that’s why we love her so much.