You will not be
surprised that New York was the first to understand how high the level of
quality is in Piedmont design.
You will not be surprised that the New York
Museum of Modern Art quickly added several Piedmont design products to their
permanent exhibitions – The Rocks, the ironically designed foam
rubber armchairs designed with a touch of irony by Piero Gilardi; the
Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter; and Pininfarina’s Cisitalia 202 SC,
the first car put on exhibit in that museum.
The international recognition
given to Piedmont design was just what made the region become one of the
world centers of design. We in Piedmont might not have noticed it by ourselves
Turin offers people the chance to discover and visit the
places that have become the forges of creativity, such as Bertone, Giugiaro
Design and Pininfarina, which from time to time open the doors of their
companies to visitors. In this way it is easier to understand why more than
half the cars that are being driven along the streets of the world have been
designed in Piedmont. The heritage of Adriano Olivetti can still be
perceived in Ivrea.
Maybe you could blame our design industry for putting more on the process of
production than on “pure” design. However, it was in this way that the best
works originated.
First there is the thought and then there is the designer.
Otherwise, objects like the Aurora Hastil and Thesi (1979) by
Zanuso would not have come about. Alessi would have been a container with no
contents rather than the leading worldwide firm it is today. Where else but
on Lake Orta could Sapper have designed his espresso pot?
How can we forget
the vases made out of synthetic materials that are a result of the dynamic
industrial changeover that Serralunga was able to accomplish in Biella? Only
a firm like Gufram could have stood up and thrived under the creative
assault of radical architects. Studio 65’s Cactus, the Strum group’s Pratone, and many of the curious objects that monopolized the market
in the 1960s are, in fact, the products of Piedmont firms.
The same is true for architecture. Mollino has remained the undisputed
genius of Piedmont modernism, as seen in his opera house foyer for Turin’s Teatro Regio and his mountain lodge, Lago Nero, near Sauze
d’Oulx.
Yet, there are other wonders of modern architecture to be seen at
Turin's Michelotti Park, once the site of the zoo. Renzo Piano designed the
so-called light blue bubble on roof of Lingotto, the former factory
building, as well as the so-called jewellery box of the art gallery
there, the PinacotecaAgnelli – structures that have changed
Turin’s skyline forever.
On the other hand, there is also a generation of
emerging architects who seem to have the energy to keep up with the masters
who have gone before them. There is Uda, which built its elevated
additions at Ilti luce. There is Granma with its cosmopolitan Parco Dora project in the Spina 3 section of Turin.
Finally, there is Elastico with its one-family houses spread over the
region. Any thorough account of the heritage of Piedmont design must include
graphics. There is the strong heritage left by Bodoni, the
eighteenth-century Piedmont typographer. Over the years the Tipografia
Nebiolo has created type characters that have been used for entire
generations. Those designed by Aldo Novarese are especially memorable. There
is an important Piedmont tradition of design in advertising.
There are
long-established firms such as Bgs D’Arcy and Armando Testa, which has
designed the by-now iconic billboards for the vermouth Punt e Mes and Carpano and Lavazza coffee’s Carmencita. There is also
a newer generation of advertising agencies, such as InAdv, Phoenix, and
Fore. There are emerging creative groups, such as Bellissimo, 515,
BadriottoPalladino and BoletsFernando. All of these have innovative styles
and international approaches. Turn is the name that has been given to
a “new design community” founded in Turin in 2005 with over 100 associates.
This association interprets design not only as a result but also as a
process of thought and is evidence of the ferment in the local atmosphere of
young people in the fields of graphics, design, architecture, and
communication. Once again it seems that people in Piedmont may be quiet, but
they do want to make an impression.
