Italian Design Day 2018 - Piuarch is one of the 100 ambassadors

March 1, 2018 will be a whole day dedicated to Italian Design. Starting in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, followed by Sydney, Tokyo, and more cities on all 5 continents, ending with Los Angeles and San Francisco on the west coast of the United States, a total of 100 cities will host 100 events featuring 100 ambassadors of Italian design all over the world. The common thread running all over the world on the second Italian Design Day will be Made in Italy, in an Italian Foreign Ministry initiative held in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Triennale di Milano, ITA Agency, Salone del Mobile di Milano, ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, Fondazione Compasso d’Oro and Fondazione Altagamma. The project promotes everything Made in Italy with the involvement of a number of key players in Italian design, primarily architects and designers, but also academics, critics and entrepreneurs. The theme chosen for the day is the relationship between sustainability and design, anticipating the theme of the 22nd International Exposition at Triennale di Milano, "Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival", scheduled for March 1 through September 1, 2019.

The programme for the 100 events is still being defined, but a number of names and dates have already been announced. Piuarch architectural studio will represent Italian excellence in Belgrade, at a conference scheduled for March 1 at Belgrade University addressing the complex relationship between design and sustainability policy. Piuarch will draw the public’s attention to the need to act together to achieve good practice in architecture and design and encourage reflection on “Broken nature: Design Takes on Human Survival”, the theme of the 22nd International Exposition at Triennale di Milano. Architect Francesco Fresa, a founding partner in Piuarch, explained how the studio works: “Our architecture has always been dependent on an understanding of context, not only physical but cultural, historic, artistic, social and urban. We start by looking at the constants and the singularities of the place we are working in so as to build environmental quality, defined not only as saving on consumption of energy and resources, but above all as a tool for improving the conditions in which we live together”.

The studio’s recent projects for the Gucci Hub in Milan and IDF Habitat in Paris and projects currently underway such as the Fendi factory in Tuscany, redevelopment of the former Unicredit complex in Piazza Cordusio in Milan and the Techbau headquarters on Lake Maggiore should be seen in this light. These projects are very different from one another, but they all share the same goal of “creating a quality environment through a plurality of factors: choice of materials, natural lighting of spaces, acoustic comfort, introduction of areas for resting and relaxing, rational organisation of routes, proper scaling of spaces and services, and a relationship with the urban or natural context.”

Other events in Europe will include conferences in Berlin with architect Stefano Boeri, in Helsinki with designer Davide Dolcini, and in Barcelona with IDD ambassadors Odoardo Fioravanti and Giulio Iacchetti. The “Ferri Taglienti” project by designer Odoardo Fioravanti will cast light on the relationship between the natural and the artificial, between “what precedes man and what proceeds from man”. In nearby Africa, Davide Lombardi will act as IDD ambassador in Algiers, where the day will be part of the “Italia, Culture, Mediterraneo” project, including not only conferences but initiatives promoting the work of young Italian designers and a sustainability workshop in which students will create prototypes out of reused and sustainable materials. In Dubai, an “Italian design night” will be inaugurated by designer Fabio Novembre with the participation of more than 400 ateliers, showrooms and architectural practices in the Dubai Design District, in a prelude to Italy’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai.

(Agnese Bifulco)

The pictures accompanying the article are Piuarch projects photographed by Andrea Martiradonna (Gucci Hub and Porta Nuova Building) and Sergio Grazia (IDF Habitat), published courtesy of Piuarch. www.piuarch.it

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