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«The design industrialists want very beautiful products that are also economic and able to be appreciated by everyone. They do not invest in culture or in training. The designers do everything alone: they study, grow and experience. If we were still waiting for some action from the industrial world, the Domus Academy would still only be on paper».
The design school Domus Academy is only one of the projects that Andrea Branzi thought about and created in his life. He was born in Florence seventy years ago and he is a protagonist in the golden season of Italian design, the season of Archizoom and of international acknowledgements that culminated in the great exhibition at the Moma in New York in 1972. The architect did not miss a beat: he invented, planned, built, taught and received awards and awarded. And he continues to do it. The latest challenge is called "Design Museum" that opened the doors to the public on last December 10 for the Milan Triennale that Branzi scientifically administered.
During your life have you ever met "illuminated" industrialists? Yet, many of your colleagues claim that without the industry, Italian design would not have become the strength that it is today…
The difference is not between those who are illuminated and those who are not, but between nice industrialists, those you can speak to and smile at and unpleasant ones. The category structurally does not produce culture. But what has always bothered me is that they take many things in their work for granted. They come to our exhibitions with order forms and they are only interested in selling. The gallery owners are better, they are buyers who produce culture and public, besides money.
Are you squeezed in between industrialists and gallery owners, between producing series and unique pieces, what kind of moment is your design experiencing now?
In recent years it has changed very much: design is no longer created and appreciated by a limited number of people, something that happened when it was born. Then we had a very important cultural function, we made masterpieces but they were closed in our own world. Today the design industry, as well as others, must face globalization, competition and propose continuous innovation. The designer has become a mass professional: there are thousands of new designers and they only work if they are really good. Just think about how many schools have opened in the last ten years…
Who is the competition represented by?
If we speak about quality, it is surely represented by Japan: in the 1970's the Japanese design did not exist, now for everyone it is an inevitable source of creativity. It developed upon the Italian model that is the one that is most widespread in the world: an array of various types of objects; designs for small series, numbered series, unique pieces. We are not specialized in producing in series but even in handicraft and unique pieces. I must say that I agree on a product that selects its own user, designed by the consumer…
Then what role does an event like the Furniture Salon have?
The Salon represents enzymes that do not develop immediately. The majority of what you see inside and outside of the fair does not go on the market, they are theoretic products, trends. They are needed for communication, for marketing and experimenting. Before it was different, the basic idea was that a product had to be sellable, then they understood that it was not possible to improvise and that intercepting the trends is fundamental to sell.
What is a strong point and a fault in Italian design?
The biggest fault of the Italian designers, especially the youngest, is that they are always in a crisis, they have a strong complex. The Milanese design – in other cities it does not exist – has always been in a crisis. It is the actual nature of the project that is fuelled in this manner and resources always come out of crisis. The strong point? Compared to the rational model, the Italian one has always been perky and easy… Intelligent creativity.
(Traduzione Sara Cecere)
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