The upcoming issue #5 of Apartamento will be featuring my most recent project «Rearranged». Join the launch event at Foodmarketo in Milan on Tuesday April 13th.

Read the article after the jump.

Lately, someone asked me: why does an architect who wants to make a living as a product designer work as a bike messenger?

I actually remember my first 6 months after graduating working in an architect’s office as a frustrating experience. Drawing plans all day wasn’t what I expected. When I quit, I decided to live my two passions: product design and biking. Working as a bike messenger pushes me to stay in touch with a certain reality and be exposed to a group of people that also decided for a certain lifestyle, that is, values over money and ideas over status. Everyone there has a different background and experiences, which is critical to what I do. Also, biking is like breathing for me so, when I’m around the city, I feel free to work in my head and all the best ideas come when I’m riding under the snow or with frozen fingers.

I always ask myself: Why launch new products yearly, if well-proven designs exist? Rearranged is an attempt to answer that question. It represents an attitude, not a finished product. I’m aware that today, the need for new is part of the consumer’s DNA so my proposal is to create a way of satisfying the desire for innovation in a sustainable way. Let’s continue to use those existing things which work well and have been accepted by a large number of users and we can fulfill our need for novelty by changing it there where possible.

In this case, I chose the Eames Plastic Chair because it follows the idea of focusing efforts and investment where it makes sense: the shell. This is the permanent and durable part that everyone would recognize and where the value is. However, the base remains the exchangeable element that would create a new object when rearranged.

The Eames are a reference to every designer because they were real entrepreneurs who tested, tried out and ventured. That is exactly what I try to do. It is not the expression of the object what guides me but to work on materials with my own hands. I’m not working on a proper, typical creative expression. I rather cultivate a scientific approach. As an architect, I recognize that if manufacturing, materials, statics and ecology are adjusted, then all variables coincide optimally and the form takes a compelling shape. I’m not the first one to rethink design but I try to bring it to a level of authenticity that will speak to many people by creating cross-references.

As in my day to day, all my designs serve the choice of flexibility and lifestyles that are not bound to a place or time. I’m not into artistic interventions that trigger big intellectual thinking but more into intervening reality in a constructive way. The real proof for a design is when the object is brought to a real level and becomes tangible. Additionally, I also want to offer the potential consumer an alternative, a choice. My furniture relates to people that change and rearrange their lives many times and that wish to have an active role in the design. The more a product is adaptable and transformable, the more sustainable it is and that is at the core of what I do.

So, I guess the answer to the initial question is: because it helps me to keep it real.

www.apartamentomagazine.com

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by Silvia Barbero and Brunella Cozzo: “Sustainable design is the common thread that links the items illustrated in ecodesign. From household appliances to means of transport, clothing to home fittings and packaginng to advertising campaigns, more than 100 products divided into eight categories demonstrate the incredible results achieved at the international level by state-of-the-art design in pursuing sustainability.”

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Design Revolution (by Emily Pilloton) features more than 100 contemporary design products and systems–safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children, wheelchairs for rugged conditions, sugarcane charcoal, universal composting systems, DIY soccer balls–that are as fascinating as they are revolutionary, this exceptionally smart, friendly and well-designed volume makes the case for design as a tool to solve some of the world’s biggest social problems in beautiful, sustainable and engaging ways–for global citizens in the developing world and in more developed economies alike. Particularly at a time when the weight of climate change, global poverty and population growth are impossible to ignore, Pilloton challenges designers to be changemakers instead of «stuff creators». Urgent and optimistic, a compendium and a call to action, Design Revolution is easily the most exciting design publication to come out this year.

Follow Emily and her Design Revolution Road Show on Twitter.

www.foldschool.com

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Papercraft is an extensive survey on the insatiable trend of innovative art and design work crafted from paper. It explores the astounding possibilities of paper and gathers the most extraordinary creations – from small objects and figures to large-scale art installations and urban interventions as well as three-dimensional graphic sculptures from a vast spectrum of artistic disciplines ranging from character design, urban art, fine art, graphic design, illustration, fashion, animation and film. The book also includes a DVD with fun DIY printable templates for creating your own paper characters and toys as well as a curated selection of the best stop-motion animations.

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by Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann: “In Unfolded – Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry paper conquers the third dimension and demonstrates the undreamed-of possibilities it holds today for lightweight construction, product design, fashion and art. The book presents paper as a high-quality contemporary and ecological material in numerous projects. A comprehensive directory of state-of-the-art paper products and innovative paper technologies give detailed information on the “high-tech” material paper. From Japanese washi paper and paper foam, to ceramic paper and carbon fiber paper, “Unfolded” presents the latest in research and development, as well as the most important methods and technologies in handcrafts and industry.”

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Thanks again Wallpaper for the great shots of Trapeze!

Tactile shows how graphic design is moving into three-dimensional objects and products. The innovative examples documented in the book demonstrate how designers are developing and implementing their ideas spatially from the very outset of a project. Tactile proves that spatial innovation in graphic design is not limited to personal work or artistic endeavours, but is being sought out more and more often by commercial clients, for example, in store design.

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