recognised and defined. But the word
“modern,” whose etymology certainly
speaks of looking at the present while
separating from the old, also suggests
a transmittable (and always improvable)
way of transitioning from an artistic,
experimental, artisanal phase to one that
is scientific, repeatable and practical.
All thanks to know-how, to technique,
to “the kind of rationality that accepts as
rational only what achieves the utmost
purpose with the minimum means”
(Umberto Galimberti). Applied to design,
this definition demands the achievement
of the best contemporary aesthetic
language for the greatest number of
people.
TH E W H Y S
To conclude, now that we’ve seen Who
(the Masters), identified Where (Milan)
and defined When (the Modern), let’s
have a look at some Whys: what magical
coincidences made Italian design so
important around the world and what
keeps it so today. Because the necessary
confluence of the two key figures in the
manufacturing process, the DE S I GNE R
and the E NTRE P RE NE U R, created
a NE W GE NE R ATI ON of young
contemporaries with a broad, open
horizon, each of whom contributed the
ideals, efforts, failures and triumphs of
this new profession. Because M I L A N
is not just a city unto itself but an
entire territory, the industrial district
of B RI A NZA , with an enormously rich
network of talent and experience that has
drawn in many an international player
hoping to work in this community so
open to the project of the future and the
progress of society. Because designers’
training in A RC H I TE C TU RE , the
“mother of all arts,” helped their thought
processes develop through IN T E R IOR S
in that optimal spatial dimension where
the body meets object and edifice.
Because beyond the very solid discipline
of architecture there has often been
another more fluid, effervescent one
guiding sensibilities and the quest for
new paths to consider the here and
now: C ONTE MP OR ARY ART.
The strong artistic component in
the history of Italian design has also
ensured that all designers have their own
well-defined, recognizable language.
Because, aside from art as the great
guiding hand within contemporaneity,
the success of Italian design has always
hinged on RE S E AR CH , aesthetic
and/or technical, often proposed and
demanded by designers and welcomed
and supported by business owners who
are well aware that only research leads
to development. And finally, because in
all this activity of design and production,
no one has ever questioned the
importance of concrete action, the thrill
of discovery and of seeing to fruition a
new idea, the stimulating achievement
of dreams as opposed to the satisfaction
of needs. This is called CULT UR E ,
and when culture encompasses not only
intellectuals but also industrialists, and
finally the common citizen who enjoys it
daily and at length, it’s a sure bet that a
society will grow not just economically
but spiritually as well.
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and commercial institution in Italy,
which every year showed the finest
achievements of small and medium-sized
private firms. Milan is the city where
a single year, 1928, saw the founding
of both Domus and Casabella: the two
(sometimes contrasting) pillars of Italian
architecture and design.
The 1930s witnessed the first companies
that used design, still a new and
experimental field, to help the “applied
arts” evolve into the new discipline
construed as “artistic design for
industry.” With the fifth Exhibition of
Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts,
in 1933, the event became triennial
instead of biennial and moved from
Monza to its new location at the Palazzo
dell’Arte in Milan. Throughout the
century, this was the meeting point for
the most renowned names in Italian and
international design, until it officially
opened as the Triennale Design Museum
in 2007. After a “black” period that
led Italy into the Second World War,
in 1947 there was finally a glimmer of
light, with the slow rebirth of society
and the resumption of these exhibitions
with the eighth Triennale, whose
theme and objective was precisely the
reconstruction of the city and of society
through modern architecture and design.
After a decade of self-reflection, the
city was finally ready to rise from the
ashes, and the first official efforts to
launch “good Italian design” took place
in 1954. From that wonderful year, we
have the establishment of the Compasso
d’Oro, sponsored by La Rinascente as the
ultimate honor to bestow on design and
a means of underlining the “aesthetics
of product” and encouraging the Italy’s
nascent “industrial design”; and the
tenth Triennale, which included an initial
conference now considered the manifesto
of Italian design as well as the Mostra
Internazionale dell’Industrial Design,
the first official exhibition to treat its
subject on a par with the other arts.
In 1956, the birth of the Associazione
Disegno Industriale (ADI) was
notable for the inclusion not only
of designers, architects and graphic
artists but of anyone involved in the
industry — businesses, journalists,
schools, researchers, etc. — in order to
marshal every component of the design
community and give creative impetus to
the culture of design. Closing out the
decade, as Italy prepared to “conquer
the world,” in 1961 a new tradeshow
was born that would soon cross the
boundaries of commerce and become a
mass cultural phenomenon by invading
the city with thousands of events open
to the public and definitively
consecrating what is still viewed today
as the most important design event
on the planet: the Salone del Mobile
or Milan Design Week.
T HE M O D ER N
By Modern we primarily mean a period
that architecture historians recognize
as stretching from the early 1920s (just
past the avant-garde movements) to the
end of the ’80s, when Post-Modernism
was slowly defined. It is safe to say that
as turbulent as the first half of the period
was on account of the avant-gardes,
the birth of political regimes and two
world wars, the second half was a
crescendo of positive new energy that
produced none other than an economic
boom and the “Italian miracle.”
The 1950s, smack in the middle of this
long era of modernity, was an apex
for design as all of its best and most
significant tools were finally validated,
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