Lost in Translation PDF

Letter to Maria Grazia Mazzocchi
Milan, April 2012

Dear Maria Grazia,
Thirty is a transitional age; we are still young, enthusiast, full of energy, yet with
a little experience and a pinch of disenchantment important enough to have an
impact on reality.
For this very reason for us at Domus Academy, the School you founded,
this thirtieth anniversary represents a goal to be celebrated, as it carries the
awareness that an original educational model was established, and the ambition
to spread it around the world.
Many friends walked with us during these thirty-year journey, and many still share
their passion and talent with our students. Many were and are the students that
chose us, and that now represent us all over the world.
This exhibition is a tribute to them all, and a way to celebrate this unique
experience of Italian design through the products designed by some of our
alumni. But, here at Domus Academy, we all know that you are the one we should
be grateful to for making this possible. Your courage, your passion, and the many
years of your constant commitment made Domus Academy the institution it is
today. This is why, Maria Grazia, this exhibition is dedicated to you.
From all of us, from the bottom of our hearts, Thank you.
Alberto Bonisoli
Dean
Domus Academy
Lost in translation 6
Lost in identity 8
Lost in production 24
Lost in materials 38
Lost in action 50
Designers 63
Lost in
translation
Dante Donegani, Elena Pacenti
Lost in translation is a way to tell and illustrate 30 years of Domus Academy
through the professional stories and experiences of some of the designers
that were part of its life. The exhibition, organized in occasion of the Salone
del Mobile 2012, finds and presents connections between the projects and
the professional work of Domus Academy alumni and some of the research
topics developed throughout the years around the idea of the house and
its space and atmosphere. The evolution of the domestic scenario and
the living archetypes, and the transformations of the objects and of the
relationships within the domestic environment, certainly represents one
of the favorite topics of Domus Academys tradition and researches, often
at the core of the didactic offering and design seminars. The products
developed by some of the designers that participated in those researches
are here exhibited: objects realized after attending Domus Academy, in
their professional career and when working with the industry, at times of
great changes of the industrial and consumption system. The title of the
exhibition thus represents the space that separates the ideas and thoughts
elaborated in the research, and the tangible signs between experimentation
and real production, between thoughts and actions.
Lost in translation shows affinities and differences between the researches
carried out at Domus Academy and the world of the objects produced by
the designers. The aim is not to demonstrate that the exhibited products
are the direct expression of having attended Domus Academy. On the
contrary, if there is any connection with the researches Domus Academy
focuses (and focused) on, it is actually interesting to investigate the creative
mechanism that allows to transform ideas, and the role it plays in all steps
of Design education.
According to Robert Frost,
poetry is what gets lost in translation.
6
La danza
Galleria del
Copismo Atelier
Alchimia, 1982.
Realized for the
opening of Domus
Academy.
Quotes by Branzi,
Manzini, Mazzocchi
from Gian Luigi
Falabrino Design
speaks Italian.
Domus Academy
story Libri
Scheiwiller, Milan,
2004
This statement describes very well the design teaching

dynamics, and especially those at Domus Academy.
Thus, the translation permeates the activity of any
laboratory of ideas, in which professors prepare
audacious and sometimes prophetical design brief,
translating current events and demands into theoretical
statements. The briefs are then interpreted by students,
which mediate them with their multiple personalities,
knowledge, cultural backgrounds, and languages.
The project is thus developed with a heavy relation
work, through the direct dialogue and an intense
communication. Thus, the project is what gets lost in
this translation: not only in the language translation,
but especially in the translation of each strictly artistic
project. Design often is what gets lost in the translation
of identities, behaviors, materials, technologies,
relationships, images and myths the ability to
imagine things is necessarily related to something
that previously existed. Here is where the meaning of
our products should be looked for, and the drawing,
the project, is the result of the translation. Since its
foundation, Domus Academy based its educational
offer and teaching method on a visionary idea that was
not trying to somehow replicate Italian design. On the
contrary, it was trying to embark on unusual paths,
the design in Milan was made by people with a strong
research drive, and thus the real novelty was the research,
the push to try to move forward (Ezio Manzini).
One of the very early catch phrases after the Academy

foundation said
it is not about Design, it is about the Designer, and
about the role of the school the focus is not on didactic
methodologies, but on the professors, and especially on
the students (Andrea Branzi).
This is the nature and the innovation of the educational
project in Domus Academy, which can be told only
through the stories of the people that have been part of
it: stories of great masters and generations of designers
and thinkers; stories of great visions and idealistic
ambitions, challenges, differences, and exchanges.
The people who created, worked and still work at Domus
Academy have always considered it a san open project
towards new frontiers, a place for experiments and
innovation, a challenge to break new ground and also
a placet o look around in order to identify new existing
themes, new problems and to propose new solutions
(Maria Grazia Mazzocchi).
Lost in translation is just the first of a series of events
aimed at bringing new light to the value and the identity
of this great design experience, but also at trying to
think about some old and new topics, and at trying to
think about the future potential of design, through the
voice of its protagonists.
7
Lost in identity
Giovanni Lauda
Habitat a catalogo
Ik-Seo Choi. Project

leaders: Dante
Donegani, Giovanni
Lauda and Jae Kyu
Lee, 1997
We are celebrating the Thirtieth anniversary of Domus Academy. In these

thirty years, our didactic activity has often caught and understood (and
sometimes anticipated) several steps and several important topics in the
design culture. The new living archetypes and the new product typologies,
the aesthetics of materials and sustainability-related issues, design direction
and the enhancement of local productions, smart objects and user interface
design are just some of them. A wide sense of vision yet practicability,
intuition yet adherence to reality were used to deal with all those topics.
Several different key works were adopted and, at the same time, cryptic
and mystic design briefs (like those in the notes) were prepared to develop
unusual projects. Those briefs have always been open to interpretations lost
in translation, to which the title of the exhibition refers to. In the Eighties,
the didactic experiences referred to a global scenario: Andrea Branzis hybrid
Metropolis, a metaphor of post-industrial society and city, which contained
everything and its opposite, each contradiction and each unit.(1)
Plural, complex, and hybrid were the words used to define this new
post-industrial reality as opposed to the modern, monological and
monofunctional, design vision. Functionality and standardization were not
prevailing any longer; since modern certitudes vanished, turning to the
symbolic form of hybridization led to the encounter of different logics within
the design culture. The same encounter was also happening in didactics
with the introduction of new design disciplines (such as primary design
and service design) and the identification of transversal or edgy topics. For
example, in the Urban Scenography class (of which I was a student back
in 1986), projects went beyond hierarchies and disciplinary specificities.
They actually focused on the city using (often simultaneously) scenography,
cinema, architecture, design and art tools. The telecommunication revolution
deeply transformed urban and domestic spaces with the result that functions
and behaviors would overlap, multiply, and merge.
Turning to
hybridization led
to the encounter
of different
logics within the
design culture
9
The didactic researches

on new living archetypes
carried out at Domus
Academy fully got
this conflict between
traditional typologies
and new ways of living
The Masters projects focusing on the hybrid table (1991) and on the
hybrid office (1992) identified two emblematic places where changes were
ongoing, the functional and aesthetic identity of which had become weak
and uncertain. Due to the changes in the business world, space and time
organization and management within the office had become more and more
similar to those within the house. The development of telecommuting and
the rise of new professions made the office disappear into a new hybrid
place (the home-office) or into an object (the computer). On the other
side the table, abandoned any traditional rituals and took in new behaviors
and new forms of socialization; through new tools and new food industry
products, the table was opening up to cultural exchanges and gastronomic
experimentation. The diversity amongst students, coming to the Academy
from all over the world, ensured a multicultural vision of table-related
projects. In the Nineties, the didactic researches on new living archetypes
carried out at Domus Academy fully got this conflict between traditional
typologies and new ways of living. They deconstructed disciplines while
integrating in the projects different thinking frameworks, architecture
and design, micro- and macro-systems (electronics and metropolis).
Even Passepartout (1998) - the livable furniture I designed with Dante
Donegani for Edra - and the convertible rug Xito (1998) by Giovanni Levanti
for Campeggi were, in those years, the expression of a new hierarchy
according to which furniture was contributing in creating a space (just like
architecture) rather then being absorbed by it. Objects became places. For
example Piano Seduto (2000), by Jae Kyu Lee for Radice was a cushionoffice; Sneaker (2006) by Giovanni Levanti for Campeggi was an upholstered
furniture able to create a gym-relax space. Pieces of furniture beyond
traditional typologies defined innovative environments. Some examples are
the Tatlin couch by Mario Cananzi and Roberto Semprini (1989), the Mobil
clothes hanger by Karen Chekerdjian (1999) - both designed for Edra and
the Stones of Glass lamp (2002) by Marco Romanelli and Marta Laudani
for Oluce. Agronica (1995), rural and computer oriented, cabled and natural,
Lost in identity 10
Left page:
Passepartout
Donegani & Lauda,

Edra, 1998
Top:
Xito
Giovanni Levanti,
Campeggi, 1999
Center:
Piano Seduto
Jae Kyu Lee, Radice,

2000
Bottom:
Sneaker
Giovanni Levanti,
Campeggi, 2006
11
Lost in identity 12
Left page:
Stones of glasses
Marco Romanelli
and Marta Laudani,
Oluce, 2009
Top:
Tatlin
Mario Cananzi and

Roberto Semprini,
Edra, 1989
Bottom:
Mobil
Karen Chekerdjian,
Edra, 1999
13
This page:
Felicity vending
machine
Kuang Ting Hsiao,

Chi Rong Hsu, Jervis
Chua. Project leaders:
Dante Denegani and
Giovanni Lauda, 2010
Left page from top to

bottom:
Parmenide
Alejandro Ruiz,
Alessi, 1994
Toothpick cactus
Larry Laske, Knoll,
1993
Happy Egg
Pierangelo Caramia,
Alessi, 1993
Rio
Pierangelo Caramia,
Alessi, 1990
Lost in identity 14
A crysis of identities: all of these

hybrid objects, which are the
results of opposed identities,
represented the state of things,
meaning the varied and ambiguous
nature of contemporary production
was a project integrating architecture and landscape architecture, structural

and environmental systems, buildings and landscapes. Off-the-shelf houses
and service-houses developed in the Master at Domus Academy in 1997(2)
integrated new economy consumption models in the architectural project;
in fact, they imagined shared areas and free loan furniture that determined
the flexibility and reversibility of spaces and domestic activities. The topic
of hybridization thus expressed the ongoing changes and the encounter
between different disciplines and cultural models within the project. The
objects developed within the Halfbreed-Meticcio (2000)(3) research
expressed this hybrid condition, integrating product and packaging,
combining ancient rituals with new behaviors, and using artisanal and
industrial components, low and high tech, heavy duty and throw away. A
crisis of identities: all of these hybrid objects, which are the results of
opposed identities, represented the state of things, meaning the varied and
ambiguous nature of contemporary production. A state of things in which
design does not think about tidying up any longer, yet it looks for a new
balance amongst contrasting logics, allowing traditional elements and bearer
of innovation and cultural diversity to coexist. Since 2000 onwards this new
equilibrium, in which both behavioral and functional/aesthetic contrasts had
become physiological, emerged in the didactic researches focusing on new
categories for objects interpretation (Luxury, Fetish, Monstrous, Shapeless,
Eccentric, etc). This is especially evident in many of the exhibited projects.
First examples are the tools thought for a new conviviality and those that
interpret an new etiquette: objects that shape that hybrid table we talked
about, and new product typologies related to new behaviors. Rio (1990),
the salt and pepper shakers by Pierangelo Caramia for Alessi are held like
south American maracas; Happy egg (1993), ceramic tea infuser by Caramia
for Alessi, looks like a holy water aspersorium or a sticked olive in a Martini
glass. Parmenide (1994), by Alejandro Ruiz for Alessi, is an ergonomic
grater/container: it collects and preserves the cheese, it is easy to hold to
grate the cheese, and it can be laid on the table. The Salad servers (2011)
15
Top:
Right page top:
Jae kyu Lee,

Rotaliana, 2004
Philippe Bestenheider,
Varaschin, 2011
Eyeball
Bottom left:
Nest
Right page bottom

left:
Center right:
Nick Bewick and

Michele De Lucchi,
Castelli
Kuno Prey, Rosti

Mepal, 1990
Right page bottom

right:
Bottom:
Juan Carlos Viso,

Vanalextra, 2012
Silvio De Ponte,
Lumen Center Italia,
2012
Drainer
Arcadia Swing
Pierangelo Caramia,
Xo, 1987
Lost in identity 16
Swirl
Tutti work
architecture
Regolo
17
Top right:
Right page:
Ran Lerner, Joseph

Joseph
Pascal Tarabay,
Pandora Design,
2000
Salad Spoon
Center:
Oberon
Beach chair
Larry Laske,
BeachThingy, 2007
Bottom:
Memorie
Daniela Archiutti,
Maria Elisabetta
Bauce, self
production, 2011
by Ran Lerner for Joseph Joseph are two elements

that can be joined together when stored, or when used
as a single, large serving spoon. The ceramic plates
Oberon (2000) by Pascal Tarabay for Pandora design
were designed especially for the aperitif and have
a handle that makes it easy to eat comfortably and
elegantly while standing. Memorie (2011) is a series
of tablecloths designed by Daniela Archiutti: they are
already dirty and worn. In the pursuit of a new bon
ton, wine and vegetable marks left by the flatware are
fixed on the fabric by a high temperature finish, with
the aim of obtaining a function-related decoration. In
2010, a design workshop was organized, focusing on the
topic of shared conviviality (places for outdoor dining,
meeting, working, and traveling). Beach chair (2007),
by Larry Laske is a plastic chair back with no seat that,
when in the sand, turns the beach into an environment
where people can relax, read, and comfortably eat while
being in touch with nature. The boundaries between
objects disappear, causing linguistic and typological
short circuits. For example, in the Alessilux (2010) bulb
collection, by Frederic Gooris, all hierarchies between
lamps and bulbs are cancelled: bulbs are not hidden
anymore, and become micro-lamps, with archetypicalshaped shades. Contrasts and contradictions amongst
languages, materials, and technologies characterized
even the exhibited products, that express a new, ironic
and surreal, kind of luxury. These last ones are aesthetic
whims, like the Amsterdam (2005) mirror by Monica
Moro for Ravarini e Castoldi, which is cut as a diamond,
or the Lord (2010) tray - with its border made by several
different handles -, and the Fildefer (2011) garden chair
- where the metal rods make an upholstered tufted
armchair both designed by Alessandra Baldereschi for
Skitsch. Jewelry also reaches beyond the idea of status
symbol and the wealth display: they are not simple
decorations for the body or the garments, but become
Lost in identity 18
19
Left:
Minou
Frederic Gooris,
Alessi, 2012
Bottom:
Fildefer
Alessandra
Baldereschi, Skitsch,
2011
Right page top:
Vienna
Frederic Gooris,
Alessi LUX |
Foreverlamp, 2011
Right page center:
Lord
Alessandra
2012
Right page bottom:
Amsterdam
Monica Moro,
Ravarini Castoldi,
2002
Lost in identity 20
21
Lost in identity 22
Left page:
Padme
Mercedes Jan Ruiz,

Ganda Blasco, 2007
Top:
Savon du Chef
Frederic Gooris,
Alessi, 2012
Center:
Niki
Larry Laske, OWO

Bottom:
Tapetimer
Joseph Forakis,
Kikkerland, 2005
interpretations of a new idea of wellbeing, multifunctional objects with an

identity that straddles fashion and design.
Minou (2010) by Frederic Gooris for Alessi is a cat-shaped jewel, and a bag
hook to be hanged to the office or restaurant table.
The erotic jewels Paradise Found (2009) by Betony Vernon are designed to
massage, tickle, stimulate imaginations, and more
The expressive ambiguity, the use of affective and emotional values, the
recycle of familiar images that characterize the previous projects are found
in the Padme (2008) rug by Mercedes Jaen Ruiz for Gandia Blasco (in
which the decoration is embroidered by overlapping wool and cotton) and
in three surreal products: Niki (1989) by Larry Laske, Tapetimer (2004) by
Jozeph Forakis for Kikkerland, and Savon du chef (2012) by Frederic Gooris
for Alessi. The first one is an ashtray designed as a chipped cup, the second
one is a kitchen timer shaped like a tape measure: you pull up the tape to
set the time. The third is a garlic shaped odor remover in stainless steel: you
just need to rub it between your hands under cold running water to remove
(through ion migration) any onion, garlic, or fish smell
(1)
Andrea Branzi, La Quarta Metropoli, Domus Academy Edizioni ,1990
Medium 2 - I semilavorati dellabitare (Semi-finished products of living).

Masters in design 1996. Professors: Dante Donegani, Giovanni Lauda. Design brief: design
connecting the components of living. A new relationship amongst products, architecture, and city.
The undefined line between public and private space. A new urbanization model of the house that
corresponds to that of the product and opens up new frontiers in goods production. Evolutionary
accommodations for transitory populations, gained values and values to be gained, new services and
old rituals. The idea of living without architecture, through the stratification of the urban territory in
a temporary and casual order and the domestic space management while individual opportunities
change. The free space and the pleasure of consuming.
(2)
(3)
Half breed- Meticcio. Masters in design 2000.
Professors: Dante Donegani, Giovanni Lauda. Design brief: the half-breed project is: combine
heavy-duty and disposable, products and packaging to set individual consumption free from owning
expensive and final hardware; combine functions and activities to obtain a better life mobility;
combine old rituals and new behaviors in order to establish new hierarchies and new relationships
amongst domestic activities.
23
Lost in
production
Niko Koronis
In Richard Sennetts book The Craftsman, one reads how the homo faber
(or man as maker) stands in opposition to the homo laborans and how, in
contemporary culture, Immanuel Kants dictum that the hand is the window
on to the mind might seem more suitable than ever. Much like Adam
Smith, who had concluded that machines would indeed end the project of
Enlightenment, Sennett makes the case that it is only through the craftwork
that human beings might be able to gain a true understanding.
This, however, does not mean that we should even start reconsidering the
utopia of a craft based economy, simply because handmade things are
far better (in many ways) than machine-made ones. Such ideas had been
passionately advocated in the second half of the 19th century by people such
as John Ruskin and William Morris, when industrial production seemed to
threaten everything that was important and sacred in the Arts and Crafts of
that period. And Henrik Ibsens Master Builder, provided us with a beautiful
account of what happened to all these who attempted to do battle with
technology. Ever since Hermann Muthesius Stilarchitektur und Baukunst
and his theories about designs new identity in a rapidly evolving economy,
and the introduction of Fords T-Model, the designer and the craftsman
have for the most part occupied different spheres of responsibility; the
former created the detailed plans that the latter would then go and adjust,
translate and sometimes replicate in very large quantities.
Furthermore, the prominent emphasis on, or preoccupation with the
acquisition of consumer goods that defined the second half of the previous
century was driven entirely by industrial production, while what political
economists called commodity fetishism that phenomenon when object
acquires a perceived value that is far greater than its actual production
cost was principally embodied by industrial perfection. But as many recent
developments in the world of design might testify, it seems that we are
increasingly swapping one fetish for another.
Personal weight scale

Elena Niccolini, Omer
Alcan, Amyas wade.
Planning the earth
in Collaboration
with the Ceramics
Network of Limoges,
executed by
Viceversa. Project
leaders: Isao Hosoe,
Ernesto Spicciolato
and Maarten Kusters.
The incomplete
becomes
a positive
event in our
understanding,
it stimulates us
as simulation
and facile
manipulation
of complete
objects cannot
Lost in Production, this part of the exhibition that celebrates thirty years of
research and experimentation in Domus Academy, proves above all that in a
culture with a oversupply of branding, market driven policies and inexpensive
mass-produced objects, where cheap technologies in emerging economies
sometimes create a huge problem in quality control, design is increasingly
aspiring to craftsmanship. From what is quantitative, industrial and hightech, we are experiencing the signs of what is qualitative, craft oriented and
high-touch. Here are objects reminiscent of the past and molded by the
present, critical and autonomous of modern-day commercial culture. Objects
that (some more successfully than others) manage to challenge the
prevailing idea that the industrial present has triumphed over the artisan
past. Objects that, in our current environment of computer precision, of
technologically aided perfectionism that can degrade into a self conscious
demonstration or of the constantly diminishing sympathy for contingency,
incompleteness and constraint, seem to remind us the need to reflect on the
fact that maybe as good and valid way to meaningfully innovate is to first
revisit and subsequently understand old, sometimes even primitive models
and paradigms. This is evident for example in the work done by Marco
Romanelli for Driade. Mediterraneo is a system of serving plates and bowls
whose organic forms have not been designed but have been borrowed
from the sun drenched Mediterranean landscapes. The absence of a
perfect form leads Romanelli to suggest an infinite number of imperfect
shapes, making therefore Mediterraneo an open project. These objects
work as a proposal, as pictures of possibilities, perfect not only (or not a
hundred percent) in execution but also in the fact that they start as a sketch,
capable of constantly evolving. The incomplete becomes a positive event in
our understanding, it stimulates us as simulation and facile manipulation of
complete objects cannot. When put together, these forms manage to
recreate primitive sceneries familiar to all of us; that of the stones smoothed
by the water and the shells that gather together after the tide. This capacity
to narrate a story and bring back images of the past also appears in the work
25
Left page:
Se i sassi parlassero
Project leaders Isao

Hosoe, Ernesto
Spicciolato, Marteen
Kusters. Students:
Chen-Yu Lu, Francisco
Javier Pastor Castillo,
Eva Kumi Furio
Yamano.
Planning the earth
in collaboration with
Ceramics Network of
Limoges. Master in
Design, 1996
Top:
Mediterraneo
Marco Romanelli,
Driade, 2002
Bottom:
Vague
Defne Koz, Alessi,

2004
by Defne Koz, whose design for Lipton redefines the icon and the ritual of the
Turkish tea. Local yet global, traditional yet contemporary, Kozs archetypal
design manages to immediately connect the viewer to a unique cultural
context and tradition by employing shared aesthetics (i.e. through the
absence of a handle and the hourglass shape). Koz manages to take a
generic, functional article and place it firmly in a larger cultural reference,
while contemporary geometries and updated proportions make the tea cup
more reflective of the designers distinct personality and bring it into the
shared values of beauty and function. The issue of the designers distinct
personality is something that also characterizes the work of Karen
Chekerdjian. Chekerdjians Random plates are much more than just what a
first, brief reading might suggest; i.e. a research on the memory of the traces
that one leaves behind on a daily basis. These randomly placed outlines of
forks and knifes are Chekerdjians personal marks of her presence on the
object. These makers marks are rather peculiar signs that demonstrate an
interesting category of material consciousness. Chekerdjian leaves a
personal mark of her existence on the objects she designs. In the history of
craftsmanship, these makers marks usually have carried no political
message, as for example graffiti on a wall can. They have simply been the
statements that most of the times anonymous labourers have imposed on
inherent materials: I made this, or I am here, in this work, which is to say,
I exist. Chekerdjians work therefore offers us an understanding of the
designers identity and the politics of presence. Something befitting a
designer coming from Lebanon, where plural technologies exist within
over-lapping philosophies of the traditional-modern, rural-urban, east- west,
religious-secular, etc. The work of Tomoko Mizu for the Sardinian company
Nonsoloferro introduces the viewer to a second category of material
consciousness. Sardinia is by far Italys biggest producer of cork, and in the
recent years several attempts have been made to support small and medium
sized businesses operating in the local natural-cork industry. Mizus chair, at
first glance does the obvious; it consolidates the worldwide reputation of
27
Top left:
Lipton Teacup
Defne Koz, Lipton,

2010
Top right:
Random Fork, Knife,

Spoon Plate
Karen Chekerdjian,
self production, 2010
Bottom:
Tapp-o
Tomoko Mizu,
NonSoloFerro, 2009
Right page:
Babylon
Harry&Camila,
Dedon, 2010
high-quality Sardinian cork, not only in the field of wine but also in the fields
of furnishings, and artistic craftwork, amongst others. Yet, at the same time,
Mizus chair is a demonstration of how experiential knowledge can become a
direct stimulus to innovation. Mizu proves to us that the designer must be
familiar not only with where, when and how to source his/her materials, but
also with the best ways of giving them form. Yet, it is only through working
with the material repeatedly, experimenting, failing and trying again, that the
designer becomes familiar with its properties well enough to coax it into
shape. Craft culture, is thus particularly well suited to innovation. This
innovation, as Mizu shows, is the result of design thinking born from the
designers acts of processing and shaping raw materials in his or her hands.
This mode of design thinking based in the experience of craft has been
recently called subtle technology and is uniquely placed to present us with
a model for sustainability and innovation for contemporary design practice.
On a similar note, the Babylon series by Harry&Camila is an interesting
example of how crafts can become elegantly progressive. Their most recent
work comprises garden vases produced in a special type of ceramic that
feature irregular surfaces and asymmetrical forms created by advanced
computer software. To the extent that a designer is connected to his or her
craft through personal, hands on experience, that relationship is impossible
to replicate, ipso facto craftwork will always maintain a strong element of
uniqueness. This is evident in the work by Daniela Archiutti, whose plates
are a result of a long and personal research into the production of ceramic
artefacts. Being preoccupied with the demise of local craftsmanship in the
region of Nove (once very famous for its ceramics) and the subsequent lack
or research from the local ceramic industries, Archiuttis work shows how
good craftsmanship comprises a dialogue between concrete practices and
thinking; this dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and these habits
establish a rhythm between problem solving and problem finding. Having
approached three ceramic companies in Nove who helped her become
familiar with the production process of ceramic plates, Archiutti went on to
29
(...) one that

is all about
doing good
work and being
curious, about
investigating
and learning
from ambiguity
and uncertainty
choose the moulds that were amongst the most indicative of past collective
memories. Part of Archiuttis way of working involved a close collaboration
with skilled craftsmen, whose traditional and long-established technique of
glazing the bisque, led to the actual decoration of the plates. Mario
Trimarchis La Stanza dello Scirocco for Alessi is another example of what
can be considered a craftsmans approach to the design of industrially
produced objects. This is an object that although it might appear almost
banal to the untrained eye, it has its long story to narrate; one that is all
about doing good work and being curious, about investigating and learning
from ambiguity and uncertainty. Trimarchi started his collection of steel
table-centrepieces by composing different shapes made from cardboard
rectangles. After several months of trying and dozens of unsatisfactory
formal compositions, Trimarchi arrived at what appeared to be a pleasing
result. Nevertheless, what seemed to be more interesting was the interplay
of shadows that the first prototype was casting on the table on which it was
placed. The design of this centrepiece thus became a detailed research on
shadows, their physiognomy and their implied characteristics. As a result,
instead of relying on the ever-elevating resolution levels of computers,
Trimarchi returned to the craft of sketching. Yet, this was not a retreat
triggered by nostalgia: his observation addressed what gets lost mentally
when screen work replaces physical drawing. In the process of sketching
shadows over and over again, Trimarchi got deeply involved in them; he
crystallized them and managed to eventually redefine an almost banal
object. Apart from metalworking, woodworking is the other ancient and
traditional production method in the area where Alessi has its roots: the
Strona valley in northern Italy. So as not to lose this precious link with
tradition, in 1988 Alessi acquired the oldest original company in the valley,
Battista Piazza 1865. As a result, several very interesting objects have been
issued, among which the Twergi kitchen tools. Made of cherry wood, they
were designed by Kuno Prey in the mid 1990s when objects were becoming
more and more wacky, ironic, plastic, humorous, luxurious and sometimes
Left Page:
Memorie
Daniela Archiutti,
Maria Elisabetta
Bauce, self
production, 2011
Top:
La Stanza dello
Scirocco
Mario Trimarchi,
Alessi, 2009
Bottom:
Intanto
Mario Trimarchi,
Alessi, 2009
31
Left page:
Top right:
Volver
Saje: Aleph, Waw, Ya
Top left:
Bottom left:
Kuno Prey, Alessi,

1996
Constantin Boym,
Gaia & Gino, 2008
Paolo Zani, Warli,

2010
Twergi collection
Karen Chekerdjian,
self production, 2010
Skyscraper
Bottom right:
Cuc
Pascal Tarabay,
Diamantini &
Domeniconi, 2005
33
Left:
Mate
Geert Koster,
Metalarte, 2010
Right:
Circus,
Defne Koz, Foscarini

1994
Bottom:
Twister
Rodrigo Torres,
Busso, 2005
obsessed with forms destitute of real meanings. Against

such a background, Preys work can be regarded as an
act of courage and a deliberate evolutionary throwback,
since his almost primitive forms signify a tendency to
revert to ancestral types and rediscover the almost
atavistic qualities of mass-produced objects. The issue
of ancestral types is what surfaces once more when one
comes across the work of Pascal Tarabay for Diamantini
and Domeniconi. Yet, unlike Twergi, the powder coated
Cuckoo clock is a masterful transformation of a
traditional archetypal design into a two dimensional
graphical representation. Borrowing stylistic cues from
both modern minimalist and traditional decorative
movements, Tarabay intentionally distorts the real,
typical and handcrafted wall-clock carved in the German
Black Forest style, in order to make it appear correct to
the viewer and satisfy what is his/her almost postindustrial nostalgia for the pre-industrial. The writing of
a comprehensive text on the relationship between the
crafts and design based on the work of Domus
Academys graduates has been a daunting prospect, not
simply in terms of the seemingly limitless range of the
material available from which such a text might be
fashioned, but also in terms of the considerable
geographical and chronological scope which might be
encompassed. As it has been seen, this relationship is
very rich and convoluted, and hence like any other text
with a considerably limited length, these couple of pages
could not exhaust all that needs saying about it. Choices
had therefore to be made, and the objects/designers that
have appeared in this text have been selected on a
personal belief that they are some of the most significant
and of the highest consequence. Undoubtedly, others
could have also been introduced, or some of those
included could have been omitted in the first place. This
text attempted to give an exposition of only a few
aspects of that relationship, without however ever
suggesting that there are not other things to be said.
One the contrary, it is hoped that these omissions will
stimulate more research and reflections that will further
confirm the postulate that the crafts influence on the
theory as well as the practice of design is nowadays
more relevant that ever
35
Top:
Manta
Rodrigo Torres,
Poliform, 2008
Center:
Dress
Defne Koz, Foscarini,

1996
Bottom:
Pane e salame
Gordon Guillaumier,
Bosa, 2004
Right page:
BookHook
Omer Unal, OUD,

2011
37
Lost in
materials
Claudia Raimondo
Right page top:
Mutant
Araceli Silva
Canillas, Transversal
Microenvironments.
In collaboration with
Seat, 2001.
Project leaders:
Claudia Raimondo,
Marc Sadler
Right page bottom:
Purism, no tiling
please
Huang, Han-Yi.
In Collaboration with
Vietri Ceramic Group.
Project leaders:
Claudia Raimondo,
Luca Buttafava,
2005
What the projects of this section have in common can be defined in many
different ways. The different definitions and titles used to describe the
projects in this part of the catalog are indicators of the opportunities to
define an area where - despite everyone being aware of its richness it
is difficult to assign an autonomous status, given that the subject is what
things and forms are made of: why define the design of materials as a
specific area of the design culture?
The answer to this question is part of the history of Domus Academy; it
lies in the very nature of the design project and of the research developed
in recent years by the school within the horizon of contemporary design
culture. Domus Academy has the great merit to have been able to promote
- in the thirty years that we are celebrating - a different system to subdivide
topics and to define themes within the inexorable process of teaching
commoditification that has characterized the birth and growth of design
schools in recent decades. Since the foundation of the Academy, the titles
of the courses and workshops have highlighted the intrinsic complexity of
the design culture, merely suggesting a possible change in viewpoint, an
ability to focus, or to bring forward parts of a continuum that no one wishes
nor wished to reduce to strict disciplinary subdivisions. As seen in the list
of animals by Borges (Borges, Jorge Luis, the essay was originally published
asEl idioma analtico de John Wilkins, the themes are heterogeneous
and overlapping. They highlight something that is strongly interrelated and
present in other fields and areas of research. The projects in this section
show a particular emphasis on the materials used in product innovation, in
the definition of new forms of expression, in the balancing of combinations,
contrasts and synesthesias found in the technical-aesthetic characterization
of surfaces and components. In order to sort them, we referred to three
thematic areas corresponding to the fields of research developed in the
history of teaching at Domus Academy based on materials and design.
The projects in this section

show a particular emphasis
on the materials used
in product innovation,
in the definition of new
forms of expression, in the
balancing of combinations,
contrasts and synesthesias
found in the technicalaesthetic characterization
of surfaces and
components
39
The materials no
longer have a unique
appearance, but can be
shaped into a multiplicity
of different images,
the new potential for
technological flexibility
allows a multiplicity
of different product
solutions
Left page top:
Yuko
Philippe Casens with

Pierluigi Cerri and
Francesco Pozzato,
Desalto, 2006
Left page center:
Nouvelle Vague
Cristophe Pillet,
Porro, 2005
Left page bottom:
Bella
Maddalena Casadei,
Marsotto Edizioni,
2010
Top:
Solar Bottle
Francisco Gomez
Paz e Alberto Meda,
www.solarbottle.org,
2007
1 - Materials and Technologies

The title introduces the technical front as a reassuring
river bank to approach the field dedicated to designing
materials of which the objects and the environment in
which we live are made of. The scenario of these projects
is the change of the world of materials production
anticipated by Ezio Manzini (Manzini, Ezio, La materia
dellinvenzione, Arcadia, Milano, 1996) and transferred in
real time in the educational contents of the school: The
materials no longer have a unique appearance, but can
be shaped into a multiplicity of different images, the new
potential for technological flexibility allows a multiplicity
of different product solutions. In this area we begin to
see the first collaborations with major companies that
produce materials and semifinished products, which
enter the world of design and design culture through the
themes of technologies and languages innovation.
2 CFM. The design of colors, finishes and materials
- what Clino Castelli abbreviates as CFM - is a simple
project theme, a title that appears across all the projects
and issues that are developed time after time. Together
with interaction, relationship, archetypes. These are the
themes of the multi logic vision of the design culture
that has characterized Domus Academy. In these design
projects, it is the surface to take on the task of ritualizing
and making the environments in which we live livable.
These are the so-called Soft qualities, the elements of
space that are not structures, the interfaces between
us and the artificial world around us. A world that is
often imposed, of which we can renew the dialogic part
through the design of decorations, light, color, sound
41
Top:
Meridiana
Christophe Pillet,
Driade, 2004
Bottom right:
Havana
Jozeph Forakis,
Foscarini, 1994
Right page;
Hope
Francisco Gomez Paz

and Paolo Rizzatto,
Luceplan, 2009
43
Top:
Tino e Milo
Kuno Prey, Danese,

1987
Bottom:
Nanook
Philippe Bestenheider,
Moroso, 2008
Right page top:
Flow - Impronte
special Edition
Terri Pecora, Simas,

2004-2010
Right page center:
Blu Canela
Harry&Camila,
Rosenthal, 2005
Right page bottom:
Jaipur
Gordon Guillaumier,
Varaschin, 2007
systems, tactile and olfactory characteristics. Soft qualities, far from being
considered accessories, often represent the very essence of the new concept
of the environment and the product, linguistic semi-finished products that
deeply determine the conformation of what is artificial.
3 - Design primario is the name - born from the insight of Clino Castelli and
Andrea Branzi - we have used in Domus Academy since its foundation, to
indicate this point of view on the design project.
The growing medium of primary design is the meta-project, meaning what is
behind or alongside the design project, where the values of intersubjectivity
and sharing make their statement and find their place.
Primary design concerns aspects which cannot be taught with engineering
precision - such as technical characteristics or the size of an object - but are
instead of a cultural nature, like music, which can be the subject of notation,
but cannot be measured. The very choice of the name Primary Design according to Antonio Petrillo - sounds like a contentious statement. He refers
to the distinction already posed by Galileo and then explicitly put forward
by Locke. They both considered two different types of quality: the primary
qualities, such as size, mass, the specific weight of a body that could be said
to be objective, were exactly quantifiable and measurable; on the other hand,
the subjective qualities such as color, taste, smell that were subjectively
variable, could not be measured. Both for Galileo and Locke, the duty of
science was to devote itself uniquely to objective qualities, leaving out the
subjective ones, far too uncertain and not enlistable within dimensions that
could be determined univocally. In this way, science first, and later modern
culture, ended up neglecting the whole dimension of individual fruition. They
pushed even further away the determination of quality from the concrete
ways in which it is actually experienced and valued by individuals.
Primary Design aims, instead, at exploring this world of evaluations in
which subjective perceptions are the effective methods that come into play
and shape a world of values and negative situations that may stimulate or
dishearten it. (Antonio Petrillo, from the Domus Academy Master project
briefing. The reference text for this project area is C. Castelli, A. Petrillo,
Lingotto primario, Arcadia, Milano, 1985).
In the most recent projects we have used primary as the adjective to
indicate something intact, native, which exists in its original state and has
not been, relatively speaking, touched by human activities. Primary are the
environments with the greatest biodiversity such as the primary forest, the
most complete diary on the evolution of life. Therefore, primary means the
potentiality and richness of a design project: its biodiversity
45
Left page:
Mozia
Giovanni Levanti,
Diamantini &
Domeniconi, 2009
Top:
Past and present

collection
Terri Pecora,
Silhouette, 1994
Center:
Twin collection
Terri Pecora,
Escudama, 2003
Bottom:
Shine
Shinobu Ito, Nava

Design, 2009
47
Left page top:
Top:
Art Gallery
4D
Left page bottom:
Bottom:
Omer Unal, self

production, 2004
Aki Motoyama/
Domus Academy
Design, Brix. Project
leader: Eliana Lorena,
2012
Sander Brouwer,
Whirlpool, 2012
Salkm
Defne Koz, Vitra,

2010
Cloud
49
Lost in action
Claudio Moderini
Design the
behavior then,
of people most
of all but also
of the objects,
gestures and
actions, objects
that move and
change, daily
micro-actions
that tread the
boards
It has been a long time since Achille Castiglioni, great master of Italian
Design, asserted that to design an object actually means to design the
users behavior. This interpretation is especially relevant now more than
ever, since we live in a world densely populated with all kinds of electronic
objects, characterized by unexpected functionalities. It certainly is a world
of actions, but also of gestures that at times take on specific meanings, as
illustrated by the communication landscape that Bruno Munari cleverly
presented in his Speak Italian: The Fine Art of the Gesture. Some gestures
become interaction archetypes, such as bringing your hand to your ear
to listen, or covering your mouth to whisper which are all gestures that
electronic consumer products capture and amplify. Some gestures are
obsolete or disappeared, like rotating the telephone disk to dial the number:
a gesture that is now replaced by the numeric keyboard and more recently
by the contact list, which does it all. Thus, some gestures remain and some
disappear, new ones appear and often bewilder us: which of us hasnt
wondered once, at least about a Mr. Somebody roaming around,
gesticulating, and yelling his point of view, to then discover that he was
actually talking on the phone using headphones? Or, how could we not agree
with the image evoked during a lesson on design and interaction held at
the end of the Eighties by Denis Santachiara - if memory serves me right ,
which talked about men and women acting weird, stopping along the streets,
getting closer to the wall as to talk to the building, while actually taking
money out the ATM machine?
Design the behavior then, of people most of all but also of the objects,
gestures and actions, objects that move and change, daily micro-actions
that tread the boards. This point of view, programmatically anticipated
by Castiglioni, was also one of the core topics Domus Academy Research
Center focused on in the early Nineties. At the time, the research center was
directed by Marco Susani and the topic, developed through the activity of
Top:
Scatole, scatole
Marco Susani, Mario

Trimarchi, with
Elisabeth Vidal.
The Solid Side,
Domus Academy and
Philips Design, 1995
Bottom:
Il metro della salute

(Health Meter)
Project leaders: Ezio

Manzini and Denis
Santachiara. Student:
Alexandra Korra,
Master in Design,
1987
51
They are then

followed by
really indiscreet
objects,
pervasive and
with an electric
or electronic
soul that
allows them to
communicate
and talk to us;
these objects
that drag us into
whirling daily
choreographies
of gestures,
actions and
behaviors
Lost in action 52
the Smart Tool Lab, was presented in the now out of print book curated by
Giovanni Anceschi : Il progetto delle interfacce, oggetti colloquiali e protesi
virtuali (Designing interfaces, colloquial objects and virtual prosthesis).
Design thoughts on the nature of electric and electronic objects, and on
whether or not they are actually able to positively influence the world of
contemporary design. It is a sort of neo-Enlightenment where the design
belief is based on the humanization of technology, on the performative
intelligence of objects, and on their impact on the daily territory made of
spaces, people and information, and especially of relations.
Behaviors that become evident through actions, gestures that intertwine
with daily life moments, and in which the objects even those presented
in the Lost in translation exhibition play an active role and become
mediators, activators, partners. Thus, I would like to read all of these objects,
some of which are electronic, with a specific and distinctive identity, some
serious, some odd and playful. I would like to read them not through a
historical or typological key, nor for their way to interpret the different design
languages made of shapes, materials, and aesthetic qualities.
In fact, I would like to read them for their ability to establish an
active dialogue with the people that use them, touch them,
manipulate and wear them. After the discreet objects
presented at Galleria Mudima in Milan in 1997, the
new generation of almost discreet quiet yet
provocative - objects make the scene. They
are then followed by really indiscreet objects,
pervasive and with an electric or electronic
soul that allows them to communicate
and talk to us; these objects that drag us into
whirling daily choreographies of gestures, actions
and behaviors. Take me and put me back down: amongst
the almost discreet objects the exhibition presents the
Enorme phone, co-designed by Marco Susani in 1987.
Left page top:
Fingertop
Project leader: Marco

Susani. Student:
Mishael Tsoreff, 1993
Left page bottom:
Irony Scuba 200

Joseph Forakis,
Swatch Irony, 1998
Top:
Teaser
Sottsass Associati
(Ettore Sottsass,
Marco Susani),
Seiko, 1992
Bottom:
Enorme
Sottsass Associati
(Ettore Sottsass,
Marco Zanini, Marco
Susani), 1987
53
Top:
Multipot
Donegani & Lauda,

Rotaliana, 2005
Bottom:
Diva
Donegani & Lauda,

Rotaliana, 2009
Lost in action 54
Left:
Zen Concpet
Motorola Advanced
Concepts Group
(Marco Susani with
Joonwoo Park),
Motorola, 2001
Right page top:
Talak
Neil Poulton,
Artemide, 20052007
Right page bottom:
v70
Jozeph Forakis,
Motorola, 2002
It is a small architecture in primary colors, following

the style of Sottsass, who loved stable objects with
a large base. The phone seems to say: take me, but
put me back down right away!. Move, look, touch:
along the same line, the watches designed in 1992 by
SottsassAssociati with the contribution of Marco Susani
for Seiko surprise us with their being essential, and
remind us that the watch first amongst the personal
and emotional objects, followed by the fountain pen
- is now less and less used as it is being replaced by
the mobile phone (which, amongst the thousand of
other things, also tells us time and date). Despite this,
the watch still remains an interesting object, carrying
precise technology, and presenting great expressive
potential. It is an object that expresses itself by
triggering the automatic, almost instinctive, gesture of
rapidly stretching the arm out, and as rapidly bend it to
show the dial from under the sleeve. It is an object that
penetrates our daily life by marking the time but that,
with its numbers displayed on a yellow background,
asking to be touched and mixing visual and tactile
qualities, anticipates the entrance of touch screens in
our daily life. The Irony Scuba 200 watch, designed
by Jozeph Forakis for Swatch, also almost flaunts its
tactile and iconic dimensions. Its peculiar elements the
spherical shape, the curved surface of the glass, and the
integrated nut ask to be touched. This characteristic
is also evident in another Forakis project: the keyboard
for SwatchTalk, one of the first wrist phone ever
produced. Set aside, connect, and take back: the gesture
of emptying the pockets at the end of the day, put
away daily use objects, and then take them back in the
morning, just before getting out of the door: Multipot,
by Donegani and Lauda for Rotaliana, is a lamp/
container that holds and charges electronic devices. It
represents a new typology of hybrid and multifunctional
objects, in which the message straddle aesthetic and
performance. Offer your hand and accompany: the
gesture of offering your hand like a Diva another
multifunctional lamp by Donegani and Lauda: it is no
easy thing to understand it, as it certainly does not
belong to the usual lamp typologies we are all used
to. Its shape recalls the monolith from 2001: A Space
Odyssey and the perforated base makes it clear to the
user that this object can do more. In fact, it can play
music and hold/charge your iPhone and, when you lift up
a corner, you can uncover the light: its shape thus turns
into a substance made of ray lights and sounds. Opening
up like a fan, and reveal: the Motorola V70, yet another
object designed by Forakis, offers a reinterpretation of
the classic shell-like opening originally introduced on the
market by Motorola, to which it is inspired. The typically
masculine opening gesture, which recalls the opening of
an army knife, becomes here more gentle and elegant
- recalling that of a fan and it is obtained through an
55
Top:
Blur
Motorola MotoBlur
user interface:
Motorola Digital
Design (Creative
Director: Marco
Susani), Motorola,
2009
Left page top:
Thermometer
Jozeph Forakis, Plugg,

2012
Left page center:
Rugged
Neil Poulton, LaCie,

2006
Left page bottom:
FireWire speakers
Neil Poulton, LaCie,

2007
Lost in action 56
innovative opening mechanisms: the rotator. Here, the upper part rotates
clockwise pivoting around the screen, and reveals the keyboard.
Grasp, squeeze and caress: in 2001 Marco Susani and Joonwoo Park at
Motorola Advanced Concept Group, develops Zen, a concept that
introduces a flip made of translucent material, which while protecting the
screen with an iridescent cover (that was, at the time the latest innovation
in sunglasses: it was used to color the lenses of mirrored sunglasses) still
allows the user to see the screen when closed. It is an object to be squeezed
in your hand and that from time to time, even when closed, transmits the
typical light signals of the digital communication.
Connect, wear, and control: along the line of the well known Nike+ - the
running shoes sensor that communicates with the iPod and turns work-out
in a social experience and amongst the discreet objects with an indiscreet
soul we find Up by Jawbone, and a preview of Plugg, the new series of
iPhone add-ons. These both are witness of a delicate equilibrium between
the physicality of the product portable and wearable and the fluidity of
the digital information. Up is a wristband that helps you to live healthier,
for which Roberto Tagliabue designed the whole user experience. A sensor
tracks your physical activity and communicates with an iPhone app that
analyzes and elaborates the data to make them visible and easily readable.
It also presents a social aspect based on the idea of sharing both data and
experiences around the concept of wellbeing. Jozeph Forakis focuses on
the eco-system that surrounds, integrates, enhances, and enriches the
ubiquitous iPhone and designs Plugg. Plugg is a series of mono-functional
objects that, when connected to the Smartphone, gather different kinds
of data and information and share them with the other users, enabling
spontaneous community creation, organized by activity (health and
wellbeing, lifestyle and entertainment, work and utilities). Scroll, browse and
draw: with the latest generation interfaces, those we daily interact with when
using our cell phones (like MotoBlur developed by Susani for Motorola),
we fully get into the category of indiscreet objects - always connected and
57
This page:
Jawbone Up
Roberto Tagliabue,
Visere, 2011
Lost in action 58
Right page:
Clibe
Roberto Tagliabue,
Visere, 2006-2012
59
Lost in action 60
Left page:
Morfeo
Stefano Giovannoni
with Rodrigo Torres,
Domodinamica,
2004
Bottom:
Morgana
Claudio Naro,
Fontana Arte, 1992
We discover the digital world

with our finger, intuitively and
analogically, like when we slide
a piece of paper on the working
surface, or when we draw on the
sand with our hands. It is a world
made of transfer, natural gestures
that are replicated on screen
always present. In these objects, our conversations and social relations all
come together on the screens infinite surface. Through these objects, the
gestures become pure action: a one-hand gesture to scroll down information,
or two-hand gesture to film and zoom. We discover the digital world with
our finger, intuitively and analogically, like when we slide a piece of paper
on the working surface, or when we draw on the sand with our hands. It is a
world made of transfer, natural gestures that are replicated on screen. Clibe
also belong to this category. Actually, myclibe.com, by Roberto Tagliabue:
a digital notebook for iPad, on which you can sketch and write about your
experiences, and which introduces a break and a moment to think within
the fast and ephemeral flow of Facebook updates and Tweets. It represents
an opportunity to distill, through drawing and writing, experiences and
emotions, and fixes them in the digital world, thus creating new dialogue and
relation opportunities. It is an App to trace and share, which thus synthesizes
the spirit of those notes: trace a critical path and share an open thought
about the unstable equilibrium between objects and behaviors.
Paraphrasing the title of the exhibition, we could title this thought Lost in
action: gestural aesthetic of in/discreet objects
A.A.V.V, curated by G. Anceschi, Il progetto delle interfacce, oggetti colloquiali e protesi virtuali,
Domus Academy, Milano, 1992
R. Giovanetti, N. Goettsche, Oggetti discreti: un viaggio nel mondo degli oggetti dautore anonimo,
EditoreFondazione Mudima, 1997
B. Munari, Il dizionario dei gesti italiani, Adnkronos Libri, 1994
61
Designers
63
Daniela Archiutti
Alessandra Baldereschi
Daniela Archiutti, architect and designer, was born in Treviso

in 1969. She graduated in architecture from IUAV in Venice
in 1997, and in 1998 she attended the Master in Industrial
Design at Domus Academy, where she developed a thesis
on the creation of a new brand represented by a shoe,
under the mentorship of Andrea Branzi. The following year
she attended a design seminar within the new Industrial
Design course at Domus Academy, once again with
Andrea Branzi and Michele Zini. In 1999 she moved back
to Treviso where she became product designer at Veneta
Cucine, where, since 2006 she is Creative Director. Her
commitment with Veneta Cucine does not limit her research
activity: since 2000 she especially follows a product line
that shows her approach and design vision. Since 2010 she
manages and coordinates a creative lab focusing on art and
design right downtown Treviso. The lab hosts and shows the
work of young artists and emerging designers. Within this
context, she developed her latest work Memorie.
Born in Milan in 1975, she received her Master at Domus

Academy in 2000. Her activity spans from accessories and
fashion design to light and furniture design. She participated
in several editions of Salone Satellite. She developed Bosco,
a highly experimental series of chairs and rugs that use
leaves and natural musk, for Dilmos Edizioni. Amongst her
exhibitions: Saint tienne International Design Biennial,
Inside Amsterdam, Design Festival Seoul, and Moss Gallery
in New York. She is a talented story-teller and she often
refers to natural elements; 2010 selected amongst the
ten best new generation designer by Ad Spain; 2009 her
Le piantine (Little Plants) are selected for the GLASS
exhibition and the DesignHuis in Eindhoven, curated by
Li Edelkoort; 2008 she was invited to participate in some
projects at Memoriae Visionarea exhibition curated by S.
Caggiano, Festival della creativit, Florence (2008); 2008
her Helix bottle opener was selected for the exhibition D
come Design (D is for Design) in Turin, Museo Scienze
naturali; 2007 her Helix bottle opener was selected for the
exhibition Invito a tavola (Lunch invitation) during ICFF
in New York; 2007 her Souffle armchair was selected for
Milano Made in Design in Beijing and Shanghai.
My arrival at Domus Academy was desired and designed to

happen, before becoming absolutely phagocytised I always
felt a strange person, even lonely and under heard. A part
of me was often left quiet and because of it, very vulnerable.
With my arrival in Milan everything changed, the passion
I have always felt and the inner strength that was handed
over to me was fundamental; and since then each one of my
sentiments is the foundation of my work.
Memorie
Self product, 2011
PAG. 30
Designers 64
Memorie
Self product, 2011
PAG. 18
Domus Academy has been for me more than a school, it has

been an intense life experience shared with people from all
over the world. An engaging year of growth and learning that
lasts in time which rarely happens.
Fildefer
Alessandra
2011
PAG. 20
Lord
Alessandra
2012
PAG. 20
Philippe Bestenheider
Nicholas Bewick
Born 1971 in Sion, Switzerland, Philippe Bestenheider has

a degree in architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Zurich. He worked for studios both in
Switzerland and in the US. In 2000 he obtained a Master
diploma in Industrial Design from Domus Academy Milan.
From 2001 to 2006 he was Senior Designer at Patricia
Urquiolas office in Milan. In 2007 he opened his own studio,
working between Switzerland and Milan. In June 2010 he
received the Italian national award for innovation premio
dei premi for the chair Nanook he had designed for Moroso.
He designs for Moroso, de Sede, Pallucco, Fratelli Boffi,
Varaschin, Frag and Galleria Nilufar. He has been teaching
at Domus Academy Milan and at the University of Applied
Sciences in Basel, Switzerland.
Nicholas Bewick was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne,

Great Britain and undertook his architectural training at
Canterbury School of Architecture. Following his practical
training and initial professional experiences at Michael
Hopkins Architects in London he moved to Milan to take
a Master program in Design at the Domus Academy,
developing his overall interest in design and architecture.
After completing the course he started his long term
collaboration with Michele De Lucchi, founder of Studio and
Partners, which he helped lead until 2010. He re-entered the
De Lucchi (aMDL) studio in 2009 and presently heads one
of the project teams.
When I think back to Domus Academy, I picture a large box

filled with dreams.
- Length: a year of creative freedom.
- Depth: a well of insights to dip into.
- Height: a handful lasting friends and partners around the
globe.
Nanook
Moroso, 2008
PAG. 44
Swirl
Varaschin, 2011
PAG. 17
Athough the idea to undertake Domus Academy course was

initially considered a sabatical year away from the UK it was
obvious from the beginning that would become much more,
and considering I am still here after more than 25 years it had
a huge impact on my whole life. Apart from the friendships
and introduction to the Italian way Domus Academy opened
the door to a different kind of professional situation that
was free from the precise titles architect, interior designer,
product designer etc found in many other countries. For me
personally this was very important it suited my nature and
character and allowed me to participate in a wide range of
project experiences. I undoubtedly feel more complete even
more prepared to undertake different types of work. Having
recently returned to teach at Domus Academy it is interesting
to make comparisons, the world is much more multi-cultural
and nomadic, and one continues to ask how all these young
minds can have the same fantastic chances that I have had
to participate not only in the world of contemporary Italian
design but also internationally. Thank you Domus Academy.
Tutti work
architecture
Castelli
PAG. 17
65
Constantin Boym
Sander Brouwer
Constantin Boym was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1955,

where he graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute. In
1984-85 he earned a Master diploma in Design from Domus
Academy in Milan. In 1986 he founded Boym Partners Inc
in New York City. His studios designs include tableware
for Alessi and Authentics, watches for Swatch, lighting for
Flos, showrooms and retail displays for Vitra, and exhibition
installations for many American museums, including
Museum of the City of New York and Cooper-Hewitt
National Design Museum. His studio is currently based in
Doha, Qatar. From 1987 to 2000, Boym has been faculty and
program coordinator at Parsons in New York.
Sander joined Whirlpools Global Consumer Design team as

a senior designer in 2008. His responsibilities range from
designing hoods within the cooking category to leading the
Visual Brand Language for Bauknecht. During Whirlpools
100 year anniversary in 2011, Sander was responsible for
the design of Fireplace concept, which won the iF product
design award 2012. Sander started his design career
at Feiz design studio in Amsterdam, where he helped
designing products for Nokia, Offecct and Alessi. Here, he
developed his enthusiasm for design. This drive for design
was expressed by being one of the three winning entries
of Becks prize second edition organized by Designboom
in 2005. Sander moved to Italy, where he obtained his
Master diploma at Domus Academy in 2007. The year
after he graduated he was an assistant professor for the
Product Design course at Domus Academy. After being
selected for a collaboration with Scuola Politecnica and
Poltrona Frau Group, he gained experience at Alias design,
designing furniture and creating vision for a unique market
within the Group. Sander has a bachelor degree in Industrial
Design and Engineering from the University of Professional
Education in The Hague, Netherlands, and is graduated with
distinction from Domus Academy, Milan.
Domus Academy in the 1980s was the time when everything

seemed possible. These were the glory years of New Italian
Design, when Memphis was still sizzling hot. We sat in our
studio space, fueled by visits by the likes of Philippe Starck or
Jasper Morrison, who were still young and not-too-famous
guys, and we dreamed of following in their steps. One thing
that the school taught us well was the ability to dream. All in
all, for me Domus Academy was a life-changing experience, in
the most literal sense of the word. I arrived there as a Russian
architect from Boston, and when I left a year later I became a
designer and headed for New York. I lost my first wife along
the way. Yet I felt that the vast world of objects has opened
up for me. It was as if I learned how to speak their language.
As a professor, now I often try to explain to my students the
meaning of design culture. In my time at Domus Academy,
design culture needed little explanation: it simply was in the
air. This amazing design culture filled our class discussions,
and it extended far into furniture galleries and showrooms of
the city. Learning how to breathe it was one of the greatest
gifts I received from Domus Academy.
Skyscraper
Constantin Boym,
Gaia & Gino, 2008
PAG. 32
Designers 66
It defined my identity as a designer at the center of chaos,

multi-cultural influences and a beautiful country like Italy.
One year at Domus Academy pushed my creativity to a higher
level, due to the environment where creative problem solving
is an essential element to sustain yourself.
Art Gallery
Whirlpool, 2012
PAG. 48
Mario Cananzi
Pierangelo Caramia
Born in Rimini, Mario Cananzi attained his degree in

Architecture from Florence University in 1985 with a
thesis on a design for a motorcycle prototype. In 1989, he
obtained his Master diploma in Industrial Design from the
Domus Academy in Milan. Since 1988, he has been working
in Milan. As a designer, he has worked with numerous
companies: Edra, Vittorio Bonacina, Sawaya & Moroni, Punt
Mobles, Disform, Metals, Ollko, Masterly, Steel, Morphos
and Mimo. Recently, he has been collaborating with
international firms such as Piaggio, Bimora, Aprilia, Yamaha
and KTM in the motorcycle industry. He is a consultant
on the design of commercial space for companies in the
fashion industry such as Fiorucci and Basile. In 1992, he
won the Forum Design Prize at the Milan Furniture Fair for
his Quadronda armchair, manufactured by Bonacina, and in
1993 he scooped the Top Ten Prize at the Cologne Furniture
Exhibition, for his Tatlin sofa, manufactured by Edra. He has
held lectures and seminars at the Domus Academy and at
the Politecnico di Milano.
Architect, he graduated from University of Florence in 1984,

and he is part of the architect association Ile de France. He
received his Master in Design (Urban scenography) from
Domus Academy in Milan in 1986, when the program was
directed by Andrea Branzi. His professional activity spans
across different countries, from Italy to France to Japan:
Memphis, Sawaya e Moroni, Cassina, Alessi, Poltrona Frau,
Il Coccio, Pirelli, Arredaesse Produzioni (Italy). XO, Doublet,
Tarkett, Dior, Daum, Thales (France), Omron, Inter-art
(Japan). Amongst his architectures and interior designs are:
Caf brasserie Le Pigalle Paris; Bond street Caf New
York; Industria tessile Doublet Lille, France; main office
building of the Nord-Pas-De-Calais region Paris; ShowRoom and retail space of the Printemps department store
for Alessi Paris; Show-Room et boutique Ittierre (VersusVersace, D&G- Dolce & Gabbana, Gian Franco Ferr-jeans,
Ext) - Paris; restoration and interior architecture of the
castle Villiers sur Authie (XVII Century) France; Restoration
of Saint Nicholas church (XII Century) Cisternino- Italy;
multibrand boutiques in Moscow and general concept
for the Russian fashion label Ladies&gentleman stores;
adaptation of the general concept and management of the
work on the Gucci boutiques for Granitolith-Villa Nova in
Paris and London; public lighting installations in Cisternino
Italy; Loft in Brussels; house in Paris. Since 1990, he teaches
architecture and design at the cole Europenne Suprieure
dArt de Bretagne Rennes- France. Since 2007, he teaches at
alla cole superieure dArt moderne in Paris.
Studying is the best thing Ive ever done, If I had known I

would have tried the global master, the perennial, the one that
lasts for life, if I was able to I would have done it at Domus
Academy.
Tatlin
Edra, 1989
PAG. 13
Rio
Alessi, 1990
PAG. 15
Arcadia Swing
Xo, 1987
PAG. 16
Happy Egg
Alessi, 1993
PAG. 15
67
Maddalena Casadei
Philippe Casens
She was born in Forl in 1976. She received her degree

in Architecture from University of Ferrara. In 2002
she graduated with a Master in Design from Domus
Academy in Milan. For the three following years she kept
collaborating with Domus Academy. In 2004 she started
her collaboration with James Irvine focusing on design,
interior design, display design for several companies such
as Alias, Danese, Muji, Pamar, Thonet, WMF. In 2010 she
started her solo activity, still strictly collaborating with Irvine
studio. She also collaborates with her fathers architecture
and engineering studio based in Forl.
Philippe Casens was Born in Metz (France) in 1961, he

graduated in Interior Design at Istituto Europeo di Design in
1986 and did a Master in Design Domus Academy in 1994.
He has been collaborating with Domus Academy since
1995. In 2005, for the Domus Academy Research Center,
he coordinated the Hyundai and Kia training course and
in 2008 the Master in Car Design with Audi, under the
direction of Marco Bonetto and Gino Finizio.
He is co-directing the EDIV (Ecole de Design Intrieur
Vhicules) Master Course in Mulhouse (France) and
since 2011 he is directing the course of Master in Car and
Transportation Design in Domus Academy.
Through collaborations with significant Italian designers
and architects (Andrea Branzi, Clino Trini Castelli, Isao
Hosoe, Pierluigi Cerri), he has developed different
projects, approaches and methodologies within the field of
transportation design (Alstom, Lamborghini, Fiat Advanced
design, Italdesign, Ntv, Poltrona Frau) and industrial design
for Alessi, Arflex, bTicino, Ceccato, Desalto, Domodinamica,
iGuzzini, Legrand, Muvis, Philips, Teuco, Zanotta, Palazzoli
for which he has been awarded, in collaboration with Isao
Hosoe, in Italy (mention for Compasso doro - ADI) and
abroad (Good design - Chicago Athenaeum) in 2006.
Domus Academy: here ideas travel in an organized chaos,

they meet each other, and then enriched go around searching
for new reflections.
Bella
Marsotto edizioni,
2010
PAG. 41
Domus Academy has been very important in my professional

life; I attended Domus Academy and I knew there most of the
people I was supposed to work later with. After a working
experience with Andrea Branzi I decided to join the Master
course in 1994 and immediately started to work.
Yuko
Desalto, 2006
PAG. 40
Designers 68
Karen Chekerdjian
Silvio De Ponte
Karen Chekerdjian is an object and product designer of

Armenian-Lebanese origin, with a background in film,
graphic design and advertising. She graduated from Domus
Academy in 1997, where she studied under Massimo
Morozzi, a founding member of the legendary 1960s design
studio, Archizoom. She holds a Master in Product Design
and Design Direction. After graduation, Karen worked in
Milan for a number of years. During this period, one of
her first designs - a suspended hanger system entitled
Mobil - was put into production at EDRA. In 2001, she
returned to Beirut and opened her own atelier, which is
divided into two parts: the Studio and the Store. Karen
has regularly participated in a some of the biggest annual
design fairs, including New Yorks ICFF, Salone del Mobile,
Colognes Mobelmesse, Paris Furniture Fair and lately
Dubai Design days. Her work has also been exhibited in a
variety of international exhibitions, amongst them Utopi
(Copenhagen), Beyond the Myth (a pan-European show),
Promosedia 2007 (Milan), Northern Lights (Tokyo) and
ECHO (Beirut) and at galleries ranging from The Issey Miyake
Foundation (Tokyo) and the Spazio Orlandi Gallery and the
Nilufar Gallery (Milan) and the Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut).
His methodology follows an interdisciplinary approach

where genres and functions merge. Essentially, it is based
on the relationship and exchange amongst professional
activity, research, and experimentation, which become
evident through him teaching at the most prestigious
Italian Universities and International schools, participating
in conferences, lectures and workshops at international
universities, excellent cultural entities and high-level
companies. Since 2010 a crucial aspect of his professional
and research activity is the design and methodological
investigation of the light, the relationship and interrelation
between light and materials. He designs lighting systems for
architectures and urban spaces, interior and product design
for important Italian and foreign companies.
Domus Academy was for me the big turn of my life. I had

finally found exactly the school that I always dreamt of. A
non-academic school that was able not to judge people, but to
get the best out of them.
Saje: Aleph, Wa, Ya
self production,
2010
PAG. 33
Random fork, knife,

spoon, plate
self production,
2010
PAG. 28
Mobil
Edra, 1999
PAG: 13
Domus Academy left a strong mark in my cultural, personal

and professional path. The reflections, arguments, encounters
and comparisons with the professors and the tutors of that
time with my classmates with multicultural origins, living
day by day with my mates and friends, all of this has changed
me deeply as a person and as a designer. Domus Academy
hasnt been simply a school, to describe it like that would
be extremely restrictive. It has been a laboratory, a place
where you could express yourself in comparison with the
others and where you can find yourself as well It allowed
me to understand and to comprehend things, to look at things
sorrounding me with new eyes... Through Domus Academy I
could dig deeper and direct my interests and my work towards
lighting design. I remember, about Domus Academy, its lights,
the smell of the black rubber floors that squeaked as you
walked over them allowing you to capture the dimensions of
the space.
Nest
Lumen Center
Italia, 2012
PAG. 16
69
Dante Donegani &

Giovanni Lauda
Jozeph Forakis
Dante Donegani was born in Pinzolo (Trento) in 1957

and holds a degree in Architecture from the University of
Florence (1983). From 1987 to 1991 he worked at Olivetti.
Giovanni Lauda was born in Naples in 1956, and holds a
degree in Architecture from the University of Naples.
From 1988 to 1991 he was part of the studio Morozzi
& Partners. In 1992 they found D&L, a Milan based
architecture, interior design, and design studio. They
developed booths and displays for fairs and exhibitions, and
designed products for several companies such as Luceplan,
Edra, Radice, Viceversa, Rotaliana. They collaborate with
the didactic activity at Domus Academy in Milan; in 2001
they curated the exhibition Italy-Japan: Design come stile
di vita (Italy-Japan: Design as a life style), in Kobe and
Yokohama; in 2004 some of their works were exhibited
at the Metamorphosis Architecture Biennale in Venice.
Their chaise longue Passepartout, designed for Edra, is
now exhibited in the permanent collection of Triennale di
Milano and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Their
lamp Lisca by Rotaliana was awarded the IF design award
in 2006. Multipot, designed for Rotaliana, was awarded the
Compasso dOro in 2008.
Designer Jozeph Forakis was born in New York City, and

received his BFA-ID from Rhode Island School of Design and
Master-ID from the Domus Academy in Milan.
His strategic design consulting studio jozeph forakis
design, based in Milan, works across a variety of sectors
with international clients including DuneNY, Epson,
Foscarini, Fujitsu, Kikkerland, Normann Copenhagen, LG
Electronics, Magis, Samsung, Swarovski, Swatch, Tecno,
Yamaha Motors amongst others. He is partner and
Creative Director with two new tech/consumer startup
companies. The first, +Plugg, will be launched in Spring
2012 with a line of smart accessories for iPhone/iPad. From
1999-2002 he was European Design Director for Motorola
and led the team responsible for the design of the Motorola
V70 mobile phone. From 1993-1997 he consulted with
the Domus Academy Research Center in Milan, where he
designed the award winning Logitech Cordless Mouseman
Pro the first vertical mouse concept.
His designs have won many awards and have been featured
in numerous publications and have been displayed in many
galleries and museums around the world. In 2004 he was
the subject of the first One-Man exhibition ever organized
by ADI (Italian Design Association).
Domus Academy: this 30st anniversary is an important

occasion to re-live the moments in which our personal and
professional occurrences have crossed paths with those
of the school. A story lived in an intense manner first by
students, then by teachers and also shared with many friends
participating into the exhibition.
Multipot
Rotaliana, 2005
PAG. 54
Designers 70
Passepartout
Edra, 1998
PAG. 11
Diva
Rotaliana, 2009
PAG. 54
Domus Academy helped me see that design is a house

with many doors. Behind each door is a unique vision of
what design can offer to society, to culture ...as well as to
commerce. It is up to each one of us to find, or to create, our
own door ...and to walk thru it.
Tapetimer
Kikkerland, 2005
PAG. 23
Thermometer
Plugg, 2012
PAG. 57
v70
Motorola 2002
PAG. 55
Havana
Foscarini, 1994
PAG. 42
Irony Scuba 200

Swatch, 1998
PAG. 52
Francisco Gomez Paz
Frederic Gooris
Born in Salta, Argentina in 1975. After obtaining the

Industrial Design degree at the Universidad Nacional de
Cordoba he moves to Milan in 1998 where he attends the
Master in Design at Domus Academy. Since opening his
design office in Milan in 2004 he has developed products
for leading design companies such as Artemide, Driade,
Danese, Lensvelt, Luceplan, Olivetti and Sector among
others. Franciscos approach to design is driven by his own
curiosity, the knowledge of technology and materials and
a highly experimental hands-on creative process. His work
has received several international recognitions such as the
Good Design Award 2010 and the Red Dot Award 2010;
he has been honored together with Alberto Meda with the
First Prize of the Index Award for the Solar Bottle, which
has also been selected for the MOMAs Study Collection
and recently he received the Prize of Prizes to Innovation
in Design from Italys president Giorgio Napolitano for the
Hope chandelier and the prestigious Compasso dOro 2011.
He is active in the fields of research and education, he is
visiting professor at Domus Academy from 2000 and has
held lectures in Italy and abroad. His projects have been
exhibited in several international events and published by
main design publications. He works and lives in Milan.
Frederic Gooris, industrial designer, born in Leuven

(Belgium) in 1974, graduated from the Hogeschool
Antwerpen in 1998. In 1999 he moved to Milan, where he
obtained his Master in Design at Domus Academy. He
gained experience working for Philippe Starck and Stefano
Giovannoni for 5 years on a very wide range of projects for
internationally renowned companies such as Target, Alessi,
Laufen, Oras, Inda, Magis, Deborah, Lavazza, Hannspree,
Nissan, Helit, Siemens, Modo, Ycami and Felice Rossi. In
2004, he founded Studio Gooris in Milan doing product and
concept design for companies all over the globe, including
Alessi, Ferrero, Target, Levis, JC Penny, Foreverlamp,
Oras, EQ3, among others. In 2009 he cofounds Bombol, a
company for design oriented baby furniture. In search for
new horizons, in 2010, he moved to Hong Kong and opened
Studio Gooris Ltd.
Hope
Luceplan, 2009
PAG. 43
Solar Bottle
www.solarbottle.org,
2007
PAG. 41
Educated to be an engineer, I was very hungry to understand

the Italian ability of translating poetry into its products, and
Domus Academy is probably one of the best design banquets
I have ever attended. Being in touch with true masters of
design, important international artists, and surrounded by
very talented co-students, it all contributed to opening my
hard shelled mind set like a coconut.
Tam-tam, Polaris,
Vienna, Ricordo
Alessi LUX |
Foreverlamp, 2011
PAG. 21
Minou
Alessi, 2012
PAG. 20
Savon du chef
Alessi, 2012
PAG. 23
71
Gordon Guillaumier
Harry&Camila
Gordon Guillaumier was born in 1966 and educated in

Malta, Switzerland, England and Italy. He graduated in
industrial design at the IED, Milan (1988-91), later he
obtained a Master in Industrial Design at Domus Academy,
Milan (1992). In 1993 he took an apprenticeship with Baleri
Associati and that same year collaborated with the architect
and designer Rodolfo Dordoni. During this period Gordon
designed and presented his first own products for Foscarini
and Mito. In 2002 he set up his own design studio in Milan,
working on product design but also as design consultant. As
a consultant and art director, he worked on the Atlantide e
DHouse collections for Driade, on bathroom accessories for
Dornbracht Interiors, on kitchens for Rational, on furniture
for Fiams Livit collection, on outdoor furniture for Roda and
on handles for Pamar. As a product designer, Gordon has
worked for various internationally renowned companies;
ceramics and tableware for Bosa, Pandora, Paola C and De
Vecchi, furniture for Arketipo, CasaMilano, Desalto, De
Sede, Fontana Arte, Frag, Matteo Grassi, Montina, Minotti,
Moroso, Roda, Tacchini, and Varaschin, lighting for Foscarini,
AV Mazzega and OLuce appliances for Elica, handles for
Pamar, bathroom accessories for Nobili Rubinetterie and
Azzurra Ceramiche. Gordon has participated in various
exhibitions and trade fairs; Pro-gettareAbitare II Tempo,
Verona (1999), Pandora Design, Milano (2001); Molteni
Villa Torlonia (2002); Pamar, Palazzo Crivelli (2006/2010);
Roda, Salone del Mobile Milano (2006/2010). In 2006
he has lectured at the faculty of Industrial Design at the
Politecnico di Milano.
Known for their mysterious objects, exemplars of vibrant

design of the 21st century. The futuristic shapes are
reminiscent of technologies applied to high speed, the
imaginary of HARRY&CAMILA drawing on aeronautical
performances, with fantasies of aircraft wings, space travel
and ships. Their resulting design approach concentrates on
experimentation with materials and topologies. HARRY is
from the Netherlands, class 1966, industrial designer with
a degree from the Design Academy Eindhoven. CAMILA
Chilean nationality, grew up in Mexico, degree in Fashion
Design, Istituto Marangoni Milan. They met during their
Master at the Domus Academy in Milan 1994. In 1998 they
established studio HARRY&CAMILA in Milan. In 2002
HARRY&CAMILA moved to Barcelona but continued to
spend time in their adopted home Italy, working with a
number of design manufactures. A good mix between the
Dutch free spirit and the Latin sensualism. They work across
a wide range of disciplines signing for clients worldwide
like Alessi, Dedon, Fontana Arte, JLindeberg+Puma, Living
Divani, Rosenthal studio-Line. Harry&camila have exhibited
extensively around the world and won several awards
including in 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 the GOOD DESIGN
Award of the Chicago Athenaeum, the worlds oldest and
most prestigious award of its kind.
Pane e salame
Bosa, 2004
PAG. 36
Designers 72
Jaipur
Varaschin, 2007
PAG. 44
We met each other....it introduced us into the marvel of the

Italian culture, their passion and creativity....opening doors....
meeting and working together with many great people from
all over the world. WLOVEDA
Blu Canela
Rosenthal, 2005
PAG. 44
Babylon
Dedon, 2010
PAG. 28
Shinobu Ito
Mercedes Jaen Ruiz
After graduating in Japan, at Tama Art University in Tokyo,

she obtained a Master diploma in Design at Domus
Academy in Milan. From 1988 to 1995 she worked in Japan
for CBS Sony (Sony Music Entertainment), engaging in
design and marketing activities. Since then she has been
working between Milan and Tokyo as a consultant for
important companies. She works also as a graphic and
interior designer and is involved in marketing activities. She
has a wide experience in the interior and furniture design,
leading the projectsfrom conception to implementation.
Her attention to detail and her approach to design from a
woman standpoint are features of her widely appreciated
work much valued by her clients.

Mercedes Jan Ruiz, born in Elche (Alicante, Spain) in

1973. Graduated in Industrial Design from Universidad
Cardenal Herrera in Valencia in 1997. In 1998 she moved
to Milan, where she obtained her Master diploma in
Design at Domus Academy after obtaining a scholarship
from Impiva (Valencia). In the last ten years mainly
collaborating with Michele De Lucchi, she has developed
among others projects for Intesa Sanpaolo, Telecom
Italia, Camper, Zambon group, Design Gallery, Produzione
Privata, Rancilio, Mondadori, Olivetti and Corraini Edizioni.
She also collaborated with Defne Koz, Sottsass Associati,
David Chipperfield architects and Future Concept Lab and
with Pepe Gimeno and Punt Mobles in Spain. In 2000 she
founded Aerolito studio with Ricardo Espinosa. In 2001 she
was invited as an artist in residence from the Gifu Prefecture
in Japan. In 2009 she was selected for the first International
light festival Led in Milan with the project Milano Merletto.
In 2003 she won the Design prize Injuve given by the
Spanish Government in the design section and in 2002 she
was selected in the graphic design section with Aerolito
studio. In 2003 she won Premio Nacional de diseos no
aburridos with a jewellery project. Silver prize at the 1st
International Carpet Design Competition held in Japan in
1999 and honorable mention on their second edition. In
2002, 3rd prize in the first edition of the Porada international
design completion. She lives and works in Milan.
Domus Academy is a free and casual school capable of

developing concentrated and aggressive workshops, facts that
surprise me for the equilibrium maintained between these two
approaches. For me as a Japanese, this was a very interesting
and exciting experience I have never seen before. Domus
Academy was the proper school for me and for my feelings of
that period. Not only studying and deepening various fields
but improving my cultural knowledge, thus experience and
education was primary for me; moreover you get to connect
with people of other nationalities and cultures completely
different from yours, which enables you to project your own
cultural identity onto theirs and viceversa, thus learning one
from each other. Currently I am an international designer
based between Milan and Tokyo, who works with a vast
range of design fields that could vary from object to space.
My career of International Designer was very important and
helpful for my experience at Domus Academy.
Happy 30 years of activity for Domus Academy!
Padme
Ganda blasco,
2007
PAG. 23
Shine collection
Nava Design, 2009
PAG. 47
73
Geert Koster
Defne Koz
Geert Koster was born in Groningen, Netherlands, in 1961.

He graduated from the Academie Minerva in Groninngen in
1984, later he obtained his Master from Domus Academy
in Milan in 1985. Since then, he works in Italy, where he
collaborated with Studio Michele De Lucchi, as part of
the group Solid, and co-founded O2, ecological design
group. For Studio De Lucchi he worked on displays, interior
design, and corporate image for companies such as Abet
laminati, Groninger Museum in Groningen, the Citizen
Office exhibition for Vitra, the Artemide showroom in
Shanghai, visit tours at ENEL plants, the Ettore Sottsass
Exhibition for Cosmit, the Mandarina Duck retail stores in
Europe and Asia, and Telecom Italian fair booths.
In 1989 he opened his Milan based studio, which focuses
on architecture, interior and furniture design, and industrial
design. His activity includes interior design, furniture and
objects for companies such as Belux, Cappellini, Olivetti
Synthesis, Lema, Metalarte, Montis.nl, Gruppo Sintesi,
Wever&Ducre, and Hidden.nl.
Defne Koz designed products for worldwide known,

design oriented companies in different sectors; Furniture,
Lighting, Tableware, Household, Sanitary fixtures, Fashion
Accessories, Branding Consulting and Art Direction.
Recent clients include: Panasonic, Nestl, Unilever - Lipton,
Alessi, Foscarini, Leucos, FontanaArte, Sharp, Mobileffe,
Livit, Pirelli, Cappellini, Slide, Durst, Egizia, Rapsel, Merati,
Guzzini, WMF, VitrA, Authentics, Nissan, Casio, Gaia&Gino,
MPD, OmniDecor, 888, Tuna, Megaron, Alparda, Nurus,
Hamam, Delta, Arcelik, Sisecam...Her idea of design is
influenced by her training in Ettore Sottsass studio, by the
combination of her Turkish and Italian culture, and by her
curiosity for very different product types. Her interests
span from humanizing new technologies like digital audio
systems to rediscovering the tradition of hand made
ceramics. Common to all her projects are her distinctive
design language and the research on the sensorial qualities
of materials. Her designs have been exhibited at Triennale di
Milano, Galleria Jannone, Galleria Posteria, Spazio Mudima,
Ideabooks, Galleria Post Design, Spazio Vigentina in Milan,
Biennale del Vetro Venezia, IDYB Koeln, Kunstmuseum
Dusseldorf, Ubersee Museum Bremen, MARTa Herford,
Ozone Gallery Tokyo, Les Atelier Gallery Paris, Abitare il
Tempo Verona, Museo di Pietrarsa Napoli, Design Week
Belgrade, Design Week Istanbul, MeDesign Genoa.
She held seminars at UIC Chicago, Domus Academy,
Milano; Fukui Prefecture, Japan; Architectural Association,
London; Bilgi University, Istanbul; Centro Borges, Buenos
Aires, Design Week Belgrade, Design Week Istanbul.
At the Academy of Arts in Holland I did my thesis on art

history about Ettore Sottsass, which made me decide to apply
for Domus Academy in 1984. Thanks to this experience and
to the collaboration with Michele De Lucchi I could later on
curate and design an exhibition. It has been a great honor to
do this work with master Ettore. My favourite anecdote about
Ettore Sottsass: I am a designer and I like designing things.
What else can I do? Go fishing?
Mate
Metalarte, 2010
PAG. 34
Designers 74
Vague
Alessi, 2004
PAG. 27
4D
Vitra, 2010
PAG. 49
Dress
Foscarini, 1996
PAG. 36
Tea Glass
Unilever Lipton,
2010
PAG. 28
Circus
Foscarini, 1994
PAG. 35
Larry Laske
Jae Kyu Lee
Larry Laske was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1963. He has

won several national and international awards.
His appetite for the whimsical and the unexpected can
be seen in his collaborations with famed designers: Ettore
Sottsass, Emilio Ambasz, Philippe Starck, and Ingo Maurer.
Recipient of the Hallmark Honor Prize in 1980.
Recipient of scholarships at both Northern Illinois University,
Dekalb Illinois and University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana,
where he received his B.F.A. Industrial Design.
In 1986 traveled to Domus Academy (Milan, Italy) for
post-graduate studies in Scenografia Urbana (urban
scenography) under Andrea Branzi, graduating with a
Master in Design.
Architect and Designer Jae Kyu Lee was born in 1963 in

Korea, where graduated in architecture. He then moved to
Milan, where he attended Domus Academy and obtained
the Master in Design in 1996. He currently lives and works
in Seoul. Now, he is a professor of Hong-Ik University
Graduate school of Industrial Art. From 1997 to 2008,
he was a member of the Studio D&L in Milan. One of
his projects Piano Seduto has been selected for the
Permanent collection Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in
New York. He returned to Seoul in 2008, established Studio
BUTTON, a multidisciplinary studio in Seoul with projects
on urban planning, architecture and design. He has won
several awards and competitions, and exhibited in major
museums, design fairs and publications.
Domus Academy was my baptism for every aspect of my life.

Beach chair
BeachThingy, 2007
PAG. 18
Niki
OWO
PAG. 23
Toothpick cactus
Knoll, 1993
PAG. 15
Eyeball
Rotaliana, 2004
PAG. 16
Piano seduto
Radice, 2000
PAG. 11
75
Ran Lerner
Giovanni Levanti
Graduated from Domus Academy in 1998, has lived in

New York City since 1999 where he has steadily built up
his reputation as a dynamic and international designer.
Lerner is best known for the witty sensibility of his popular
designs. Ran Lerner Design Inc. was established in 2003,
designing for clients of wide accessibility from implementing
his own signature whimsy to aesthetic form. His work is
based on the core concept of interaction of product and
user, encouraging touch and emphasis on relationship
of human to object. Lerner also promotes eco-friendly
manufacturing by the efficient use of material and low
energy fabricating technologies, often designing multi
functional products affordable for the public at large.
Lerner teaches Industrial Design students at The Parsons
School of Design and FIT. He has recent publications
including 1000 product designs 2010, Wall street journal,
New York Times Time out New York, Food and wine,
ID,Domino Gourmet, The Today Show and others
Ran Lerners Design Inc.s list of current clients includes
Umbra, Joseph Joseph, Acme, Rosenthal, Wedgwood,
Waterford, Kikkerland, Cambridge Silversmiths, Yamazaki,
Reed & Barton, Nambe, Starwood hotels and other leading
manufacturers. The designs could be found at retailers such
as Macys, Bloomingdales, Crate & Barrel, The Conran Shop,
Moma store, Bed bath & beyond, Target, and others.
Giovanni Levanti is a Milan based professional, born in

Palermo in 1956. He received his degree in Architecture
from University of Palermo in 1983 and in 1984 he moved to
Milan where he attended his Master at Domus Academy.
From 1985 to 1990 he collaborated with Andrea Branzis
studio. In 1991 he founded his own studio.
He collaborates with Campeggi, Cassina, Diamantini &
Domeniconi, Domodinamica, Edra, Foscarini, Marutomi,
Memphis, Nagano, Pallucco Italia, Salviati, Serafino Zani,
Twergi-Alessi. Some of his products and designs have been
selected for prestigious international exhibition such as:
Design una storia italiana (Rome, Turin, 2011), Le fabbriche
dei sogni (Milan 2011) Abitare lUtopia (Verona, 2010),
Quali cose siamo (Milan 2010),1978-2008 Made in ItalyBrazilian Design Biennal (Brasilia, 2008), Il Modo Italiano
(Montreal, 2007, Toronto, Rovereto), 1945-2000-Il Design
in Italia-100 oggetti (Seoul, 2001, Beijing, Shanghai, traveling
exhibition), Il Design Italiano 1964-1990 (Milan, 1996) La
Fabbrica Estetica (Paris, 1993) Capitales Europennes du
Noveau Design (Paris, 1991) Creativitalia (Tokyo) Dodici
Nuovi - Memphis (Milan, 1986).
Some of his objects are exhibited in the design collection at
Triennale di Milano, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal
and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He was awarded the
Premio Palermo Design Week 2007 and Design Plus Prize
2000 at Messe Frankfurt Exhibition amongst others, and
he was selected for the XXII Premios de Disegno cDIM
Professionales 2004 in Valencia and for the XIX Premio
Compasso dOro ADI 2001 in Milan. In 2010 Beppe Finessi
curated a dedicated exhibition at Docva-Careof-Via Farini at
Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.
There couldnt be a better school, Ive learned so much on the

importance of a good concept, that makes a product better
and not just different, an element that I try to embed in all my
design today.
Salad Spoons
Joseph Joseph
PAG. 18
Designers 76
Sneaker
Campeggi, 2006
PAG. 11
Xito
Campeggi, 1999
PAG. 11
Mozia
Diamantini &
Domeniconi, 2009
PAG. 47
Tomoko Mizu
Monica Moro
Tomoko Mizu was born in Japan. After a period of

professional training in the watch industry at SEIKO
Corporation, she moved to Milan. She received her Master
in Industrial Design from Domus Academy in 1988 and
established her own Milan based studio, Mizu Creative
Design Lab, in 1994. Her activity focuses on product design
and corporate image: she is a product and communication
consultant for Fiera di Milano. She works with international
companies such as Cappellini, Sawaya & Moroni, Horm1988,
Bonacina Vittorio, Rithzenhoff, Giovanni De Maio, Trunk e
Kanebo. In the past few years she has been closely working
with Italian artisans to enable a closer relationship between
the artisanal and the design world. She participated in the
Biennale dArtigianato Sardo in 2009, for which she was
awarded the Compasso dOro in 2011. Her projects were
exhibited in many exhibitions and published on Italian and
international magazines. Since 2010, the vases she designed
for Cappellini are part of the permanent collection at
M.A.G.M.A. Museum in Roccamonfina (CE). The last project
she developed with Giovanni De Maio was exhibited at Expo
Luxe in Rome. She runs workshops at Domus Academy,
Politecnico di Milano and IED.
Monica Moro was born in Sweden and subsequently moved

to Italy. After graduating in Architecture and obtaining a
Master in Industrial Design from Domus Academy, she
worked at Andrea Branzi studio where her activity focused
on design. She also collaborated with Antonio Petrillo, Clino
Trini Castelli, Anna Gili, and Alessandro Mendini.
As a freelance designer she currently collaborates with
several Italian and international clients. She is also
external researcher at the LNU University in Sweden and
at the Laboratorio Colore (Color Lab) within the Indaco
Department at Politecnico di Milano, where she teaches
classes in the field of Design and color.
The year that I did Domus Academy was truly unique and
special. It is hard to name only one person that has influenced
my thinking, my carreer. If I had to name only one person
I would say Arch. Ettore Sottsass jr. Thankfully, even after
Domus Academy I had many opportunities to talk to him.
He taught us that beyond the measurements of the human
body , there are many things to be considered, the social
movement and the culture. He opened another perspective of
the function in design.
Fascinated by the title of the exhibit Lost in translation, and

even with movement of emotions I rethink my experiences
at Domus Academy. Fascinated because I grew up on the
line of the unstable encounter of two different cultures and
languages, southern and northern. I have lived and I have
experienced so many times the process of loosing and as many
times the enrichment that comes on the path of a project. I am
moved by the encounter of new people and realities and above
all a new dimension in the design thinking that occurred there.
Everything was originated there at Domus Academy, the pain,
the joy and sometimes (rarely) the enlightment and, I wasnt
ready for this, the internal transformation of facing and
looking at the project, the other one and the world. In reality I
think that the enjoyment of the designer is the path between
the idea to the final product.
Amsterdam
Ravarini
Castoldi, 2002
PAG. 21
Tapp-o
NonSoloFerro, 2009
PAG. 28
77
Aki Motoyama
Claudio Naro
Aki Motoyama, known for incorporating her artistic and

intercultural perspectives to her design, was bornin 1986
and spent her life both in Japan and the United States.
She received her bachelors degree from the University of
Michigan School of Art and Design in 2008, where she
was honored with the Barbara & Dorothy Heers Freshman
Award.During and after her studies in Michigan, Motoyama
studied furniture design and fabrication in Copenhagen and
Boston. In 2010 she attended the Domus Academy with a
scholarship for her Master in Product Design. Recently,one
of herworks wasthe semi-finalist of the Furniture Design
Award offered by Singapore Furniture Industries Council.
CLOUD from Brix will be her first design to be produced.
Claudio Naro holds a degree in Architecture from University

of Palermo in 1983. From 1983 to1984 he collaborated
with the class of Environmental Design at the Faculty of
Architecture in Palermo. He was awarded a European
Union Scholarship for the Master in Lighting Design at
Domus Academy: he thus moved to Milan in 1984 and
graduated from Domus Academy in July 1985. From 1985
he collaborated with the architecture and design studio
Sottsass Associati in Milan. In 1987 he moved to Paris, where
he taught at the cole Nationale Suprieure de Cration
Industrielle. In 1989 he moved back to Milan and founded his
own design studio. From 1998 to 2000 he taught Design at
the Accademia Statale di Belle Arti in Macerata.
Domus Academy is a melting pot. You meet with people

from different ages, culture and background. You share the
experience and merge ideas into form.What I have seen, who
I have met, what I have felt, what I have absorbed. My life
there was beyond studying design in Italy.
La Domus, as it is called by the alumni, gave me the capacity

to understand, appreciate and love quality objects, not only
as a work of invention, but also as the use of creativity on an
object that in certain occasions becomes art. It gave me the
possibility to develop sensitivity, which I had before in a less
profound manner, and the motivation to engage in a constant
research of potential new modern classics, that in my interior
architecture projects became precious instruments to work
with. The high quality of the lectures, that nurished me
throughout the course, left me the capability to understand
objects, to decode the concept that originated the project.
This ability is fundamental to understand, among the huge
number of objects produced every year, which ones are the
objects that have content beyond the sales matter. What
I learnt at Domus Academy is not only technical, but also
a humanistic vision of the project that allows us to see the
objects as vehicles of cultural and emotional communication.
Cloud
Aki Motoyama, Brix,
2012
PAG. 49
Morgana
Claudio Naro,
Fontana Arte, 1992
PAG. 61
Designers 78
Terri Pecora
Christophe Pillet
Terri Pecora, Californian, was born in 1958. She studied

fashion illustration at Art Center College of Design in
Pasadena, California and moved to Italy in 1988 to attend
the Product Design Master Program at Domus Academy in
Milan. In 1991 she established her own studio, working with
various European companies such as Adidas Eyewear, Art
& Cuoio, Bisazza, BRF, Marco Bicego, Dom Ceramica, Edra,
Emmebi, Esprit Eyewear, Interflex, Flou, M&Z Rubinetti,
Montblanc, Persol Eyewear, Plumcake kids, Prnatal, Simas,
Silhouette Eyewear, Swatch, Vice Versa and Zanotta. She
has worked in many sectors: furniture design, interiors and
exhibition installations, art direction and graphics, fashion
accessories, products for the home, accessories, wall
coverings and fittings for the bathroom.
Christophe Pillet is a French designer who has won

international acclaim for the spectrum and quality of his
creations. Architecture, objects, furniture, art direction: his
signature is invariably associated with the finest brands
and projects of ever- increasing weight and prestige.
From transforming the Lancel boutiques across France
and the rest of the worldwide, designing the new Hotel
Sezz in Saint Tropez, and the restaurant Maison Blanche
in Fes and Casablanca, to creating stands for Renault at
international automobile shows: the scope and the variety
of his projects share a common attitude, independent
of scale. Whether it be as design director for Lacoste, or
in long-term collaborations with Driade, Cappellini and
Emu, his considered interpretations are a testament to
high-voltage chic, distinguished both by its precision and
rigor. Pillets ranges were originally Italian. There were
certainly few places as magical as Milan for designers in the
1980s. Having been awarded his diploma from the Domus
Academy, he became part of the Memphis group (as an
assistant to Martine Bedin, and Michele De Lucchi), when
they led the vanguard of a new approach to design. Upon his
return to Paris, Pillet was involved in the development of the
Starck agency. Having graduated from extra to actor, Pillet
would take on the role of director in 1993 with the creation
of his own agency. In the same year he was nominated
Designer of the Year at the Salon du Meuble de Paris, and
his independent career was launched. His personality and his
career offer distinctive characteristics. Whilst having an art
school background (he studied in Nice), he initially launched
a music career: he has retained a taste for certain rhythms
and time signatures, as well as a search for harmony.
Domus Academy was a bridge from one place to the next,

and it was not always a sturdy one. Sometimes it was like
walking over a deep crevice on one of those tiny swaying
wooden numbers in a Harrison Ford movie. But it was a
very good experience, very Italian. As they told us students:
it was up to us what we wanted to get out of our year at
Domus Academy, they werent babysitting, and they meant
it. Visiting professors like Francesco Binfar, Alberto Meda,
Richard Sapper and more were par for the course. They
talked passionately about their life, loves and work: even
if you couldnt understand them it didnt seem to bother
anyone! My course included student protests and the
cipollisti, a laughable counter-proposalto the bolidisti
movementcreated by a frenchman, a scottish guy and a
spaniard. Domus Academy was a great introduction into
Italian design culture: chaotic yet constructive, experimental
and incredibly productive.
Past and present
Silhouette, 1994
PAG. 47
Flow
Simas, 2004-2010
PAG. 45
Twin line
Escudama, 2003
PAG. 47
Meridiana
Driade, 2004
PAG. 42
Nouvelle Vague
Porro, 2005
PAG. 40
79
Neil Poulton
Kuno Prey
Neil Poulton (born 1963) is a Scottish product designer,

based in Paris, France. He specialized in the design of
deceptively simple-looking mass-produced objects and has
won numerous international design awards.
Poulton is best known for his designs in the fields of
technology and lighting design and is often associated
with manufacturers LaCie, Artemide, Megalit and Atelier
Sedap. Among his recent clients, Christofle, Forestier, the
Glenmorangie Company and Vertgo Bird. In 2007 the
Centre Georges Pompidou museum in Paris acquired six
Poulton-designed objects for its Permanent Contemporary
Collection. In 2008, Time magazine included Poulton in The
Design 100 - The people and ideas behind todays most
influential design. Neil Poulton has lived and worked in Paris
since 1991. Poulton gained a BSc degree in Industrial Design
(technology) at Napier University in Edinburgh in 1985
and was awarded the SIAD Chartered Society of Designers
Student Product Designer Of The Year. In 1988 he gained a
Master diploma in Design at the Domus Academy in Milan,
Italy, under Italian architect Andrea Branzi and designer
Alberto Meda. Poultons tutors included Italian architect
Ettore Sottsass, German industrial designer Richard Sapper,
Isao Hosoe and Anna Castelli Ferrieri.
Poultons designs have won numerous awards, including
seven French Etoile de lObserveur du Design prizes, ten
German Red Dot Design Awards, two Best of The Best Red
Dot Design Awards, five German IF International Forum
Design prizes, three French Janus de lindustrie awards,
two Recommendation Premio Compasso dOro, and the
Menzione dOnore Premio Compasso dOro 2011.
Kuno Prey was born 1958 in San Candido/Innichen, Italy.

After completing his education in Art and Design, he began
operating in his own studio. His natural curiosity led him to
experiment the use of new materials and technologies. He
made a name for himself as design consultant for numerous
international companies. His original and ingenious work
develops into highly successful products that won many
international awards. In 1993 he is appointed Professor
of Product Design at the Faculty of Art and Design at
theBauhausUniversitt Weimar, Germany, founded that
same year by Prof. Lucius Burckhardt. Thus, he had the great
opportunity to contribute actively to its development right
from the beginning. In 2002 he returned to Italy to found
the new Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University
of Bolzano/Bozen that, guided by him as dean until 2010,
is now rated among the most reknown schools in Europe.
Starting from October 2010 he has resumed teaching full
time and doing research in product design.
Talak
Artemide, 20052007
PAG. 55
Designers 80
Rugged
LaCie, 2006
PAG. 57
FireWire Speakers
Lacie, 2007
PAG. 57
For me, a 24 year-old with deep roots in the Dolomites,

Domus Academy was a true test bed and an opportunity of
intellectual enrichment, that I could project myself in a strong
international dimension. I remember that at least once a week
they would give us lectures and tell us about their creative
world with visions of a very distant reality. A really special
school of life.
Drainer
Rosti Mepal, 1990
PAG. 16
Twergi collection
Alessi, 1996
PAG. 33
Tino e Milo
Danese, 1987
PAG. 44
Marco Romanelli
Alejandro Ruiz
Designer and critic, he was born in Trieste in 1958. He

received his degree in Architecture from the University
of Genoa in 1983 and his Master in Design from Domus
Academy in 1984. In 1986 he opened his studio in Milan.
From 1984 to 1994 he collaborated with the Faculty of
Architecture in Genoa at research and didactic programs.
From 1986 to 1994 he wrote for Domus magazine, and from
1995 to 2007 for Abitare. Since 1995 he is art director at
O-Luce. From 1996 to 2005 he was art director at Montina
and, in 2007 at Marazzi. Upon request of Fiat Engineering,
he designed the restoration of the Museo della Civilt
Romana in Rome-EUR. His works were published both
in Italy and abroad. In 2004 he participated in the Venice
Architecture Biennial in the Notizie dallInterno (Domestic
news) section. Since 2006, he teaches Jewelry design at
Politecnico di Milano. As regards his design activity, since
1988 he collaborates with Marta Laudani, with whom he
developed projects for prestigious italian and international
companies. In 2011, Laudani&Romanelli were awarded the
Compasso dOro for developing a design experience with
local artisans promoted by Regione Sardegna.
Born in Bahia Blanca in 1954. Designer, interior designer and

interior decorator. He collaborated with Alchimia studio and
with Gregotti Associati. He was teacher at the European
Design Institute and at Domus Academy. He works for
Alacta, Perani, Mimo, Red-Zanussi.
Parmenide
Alessi, 1994
PAG. 15
Domus Academy was the true starting point of my design

thinking. There I met, contemporarily, the post-modernists,
specially Sottsass e Branzi, back then representing a
dominant culture, an a great master of the classic Italian
Design, Mario Bellini. I chose without a doubt the last one!
Learning however from the first, the need to make the projects
become a tale or at least a story. To Maria Grazia Mazzocchi
goes the tangible sign of my gratitude!
Stones of glass
Oluce, 2009
PAG. 12
Mediterraneo
Driade, 2002
PAG. 27
81
Marco Susani
Roberto Tagliabue
Marco Susani is a design consultant based in Chicago.

In 2010 he co-founded with Defne Koz the studio Koz
Susani Design, where he is responsible of the disciplines of
Experience Design, Interaction Design and Strategic Design.
He designed for companies like Motorola, Philips, Panasonic,
Seiko, Olivetti, 3M, NTT Japan, Zumtobel, Nissan,
Mitsubishi, Tokyo Gas, Toshiba, Apple, Logitech, Unilever,
Telecom Italia, Mediaset, bTicino, Fontana Arte.
In USA, from 2000 to 2009, as an executive in Motorolas
Global Consumer Experience Design, he led the culturechange toward a design-oriented, experience-driven
company. Marco Susani began his career with Ettore
Sottsass, the undisputed icon of 20th Century design,
first at Olivetti Design, then as Associated Partner of his
studio, Sottsass Associati. His works have been shown
in exhibitions at Triennale di Milano, Memphis Gallery
Milano, Centre Pompidou Paris, Axis Gallery Tokyo, Grand
Palais Paris, and Design Museum London. He won many
prestigious awards; his works and interviews have been
featured in international magazines.
Roberto Tagliabue has been actively involved in interactive

media, product design, and brand identity since the early
90s. Appointed Nikes Director of Digital Innovation in
2005, Tagliabue is known for designing innovative, wearable
products like NikePlus that blur the boundaries between
physical and digital. The rm has produced one successful
product story after another, including Microsoft Courier UX,
Motorola Droid Home UI, Mindswarm, Jawbone UP, and
the new Unstuck app. It helped fuel LunaTiks sensational
Kickstarter campaign, and is currently working on a number
of new projects.
Domus Academy: We expected personalities, prominent,

but we didnt expect anything from the school. It was the
first year. A school-not-school, they told us. I dont think I
understood back then what they meant. We were a guinea
pig in an experiment that taught us how to.... experiment
and experiment again. We learnt how to be curious, how to
discover new ways to do design, to reinvent everyday our own
craft. Fortunate, we continued to reinvent ourselves for therty
years, and in the end maybe we understood what they meant.
Thank you prominent personalities, and thank you school-notschool for having changed our lives.
Teaser
Seiko, 1992
PAG. 53
Enorme
1987
PAG. 53
Designers 82
Zen concept
Motorola, 2011
PAG. 54
Motorola motoblur
Motorola 2009
PAG. 56
It was 1992, the first Interaction Design Master at Domus

Academy. There, on the roof of a building in Milanofiori, we
were learning about the internet, the email, the browser and
discovering how to envision and design new digital devices
that would improve and transform our lives. There I learnt
that designing innovative digital experiences means to go
beyond making technology do more, last longer, weigh less or
go faster. I learned that it is about understanding how devices
and services fit into peoples lives. The perfect experience
is a carefully planned consumer journey. It has been a life
changing experience.
Jawbone Up
Visere, 2011
PAG. 58
Clibe
Visere, 2006-2012
PAG. 59
Pascal Tarabay
Rodrigo Torres
Pascal Tarabay is a Lebanese architect born in 1970; he was

based in Beirut, Milano and now Lima. He has worked as a
designer and art director on all scales of the creative project,
from architecture to product design, from one offs to mass
production, with artisans or multinational companies, for
single clients to corporate companies. His work has been
frequently showed, awarded and published in exhibitions
and the medias. In 2011 he decided to start his own edition
company: Editions Unlimited.
Born in Bogot, Colombia in 1976. In 1998 he obtained his

degree in Industrial Design from the faculty of Industrial
Design of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogot and
received the Master in Design at Domus Academy of Milan
in 1999. In 1997 he won the Mario Santo Domingo prize for
the best students of design and architecture of Colombia
and did a internship at the CID (Central Industrial Design)
at Whirlpool Europe (Italy). In 1998 he participated with his
final thesis at the New Designers Exhibition in London that
took part in the Business Design Centre. From 2000 until
2004 he worked as a designer for Stefano Giovannonis
studio in Milan. In 2005 and 2008 he won the Lapiz de
Acero design award with Morfeo and Manta chair. He
has worked for major international companies such as
Alessi, Poliform, Nike, Microsoft, Domodinamica, Potocco
and Busso among others. In 2006 he participated at the
exhibition La fabbrica del design organized by Domus
Academy and the municipality of Milan. His work has
been published on some of the most important design
publications in Europe, Asia and America. He has been
visiting professor and project leader for the Master in
Product and Interaction Design at Domus Academy in
Milan and visiting professor at IED in Turin. He has held
conferences at several universities in Italy and Colombia. He
lives and works in Milan.
Domus Academy changed my life, professionally and

personally. I discovered, I shared, I found friendship, I loved
and I started a family.
Cuc
Diamantini &
Domeniconi, 2005
PAG. 33
Oberon
Pandora Design,
2000
PAG. 19
Manta
Poligorm, 2008
PAG. 36
Twister
Busso, 2005
PAG. 35
Morfeo
Domodinamica,
2004
PAG. 60
83
Mario Trimarchi
Omer Unal
Sicilian, Mario Trimarchi is a Milan based professional since

1983. He is an architect that belongs to the freehand
generation, and always moved around the visual universe
considering drawing, photography, design, and image as
parts of the same field of investigation. He directed the
Master in Design at Domus Academy in the early Nineties,
and was par of Olivetti Design studio with Michele De
Lucchi. In 1999 he established FRAGILE, Corporate Identity
Care studio that currently runs with Frida Doveil. At
Fragile, he designs identities, corporate image, and visual
alphabets used to tell different specificities. He designed
the logo for Poste Italiane and many others, the graphics
for large exhibition and communication systems for Italian
design companies, displays and interiors. He never gave
up drawing, nor thinking about architectures. He designed
for Alessi, Artemide, Deborah Milano, Philips, Matsushita,
Serafino Zani. His works were awarded many prizes,
amongst which Smau Industrial Design Award, Good Design
Award, and Red Dot Communication Award. His interests
currently focus on the topic of unstable geometries, which
he designs with the intent to slightly move the usual balance
of our normal relationship with objects.
Omer Unal was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1973. He

Graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts
Interior Design Department in Istanbul. In 1996-97 he
earned a Master Diploma in Design from Domus Academy
in Milan. He later earned his second Master Diploma in
Interior Design from Marmara University Faculty of Fine
Arts Interior Design Department. In 2000 he founded UBstudio along with his partner Alper Boler in Istanbul, Turkey.
His studios work included Product design, Shop Window
Designs, Interior Designs, Architecture for various local
companies in Turkey. His Sema coffee table designed for
the Turkish company Nurus won 2008 IF best design award.
His works have won eight international and local awards
from 1996-2012. In 2012 he founded OUD studio, and he is
continuing to design in the fields of Product Design, Interior
Design, Architecture. His work has been exhibited in MAK
Vienna Museum of Applied Arts, MoMa shop.
At the beginning Domus Academy was the creation

of a privileged place to interpret the world, to invent
questions, to search for partial answers, beyond the logic of
standardization. I like remembering it so.
La Stanza dello
Scirocco
Alessi, 2009
PAG. 31
Intanto
Alessi, 2009
PAG. 31
Until the 90s my country Turkey was a Non Liberal

Nationalist country. Access to knowledge therefore intellect,
and communication with the outside world was limited. You
needed knowledge to access knowledge. Given this situation,
my knowledge of design theory was limited to what I could
get my hands on in few libraries and what was taught in
my university. During and after, I was deeply influenced by
the words of Enzo Mari, Ezio Manzini, Andrea Branzi who
gave lectures at Domus Academy. I felt like a five year old in
a candy store, a dry sponge sucking up all the information
around me. A caveman that has just been unfrozen was
brought into the 21st century. It was the best educational
experience of my life. I have a multi disciplinary office that
works mainly with local Turkish brands who are trying to
expand globally.
Book Hook
OUD, 2011
PAG. 37
Designers 84
Salkim
self production,
2004
PAG. 48
Juan Carlos Viso/Juanco
Paolo Zani
Juan Carlos Viso/Juanco (1973) grew up in Caracas,

Venezuela and graduated in Industrial Design at the
Instituto de Diseo de Caracas. In 1998 he moved to Milan
to attend the Master in Design at Domus Academy.
From 1999 to 2001, inside Studio Dordoni, he worked
together on the creative research for furniture design,
objects, lamps and furnishing-accessories for Artemide,
Minotti, Molteni & Co, Breil, D&G. Since 2001 he works as
a freelance designer and collaborates with professionals
of architecture and fashion houses like +ARCH, Studio
Ortelli, VSM46, Armani, Missoni, Sergio Rossi and
Piazza Sempione in diverse projects and visual display
development. In 2002 won the Designboom & Sothebys
rocking chair competition and the price Macef young
design competition. In 2004 he started a professional
association with Lorenzo Bustillos, dealing with graphic
work, interior and product design. Collaborating with
Banal Extra, Diamantini & Domeniconi, Frida Kahlo corp,
Cut Milano, Cleaf, and Mycrom. Throughout the years he
has participated in a wide range of projects, from design
research for hi-tech companies as the likes of Canon and
Softbank Japan, to the design of coffee cups made out of
Industrial glass in Venezuela. He is the creative director of
Mavari, a start-up surf apparel company based in Santa
Cruz, California. His works have been published in many
international publications.
He was born in Cesena in 1960 and currently lives and

works in Milan. He graduated from I.S.I.A. di Faenza (Istituto
Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche) in 1986, later to obtain
a Master in Industrial Design from Domus Academy (in
1987). His Milan based studio focuses on:
- product design like ceramic tiles (Marazzi, Ascot,
Gabbianelli-Italy), hi-fi accessories (Ross electronics-Great
Britain), mobile phones (Fujitsu-Japan, Haier mobile-India),
flatware and cookware (Alessi, Lagostina, Santandrea,
Guzzini, Cierre accessories-Italy, WMF, Fissler-Germany),
appliances (Ariston/Indesit, Ocean-Italy), rugs and carpet
(Warli-Italy, Louis De Poortere-Belgium), eyewear (EspritUsa), furniture (FontanaArte, Kristalia-Italy, Steelcase
Strafor-Usa/France), home and office lamps (FontanaArte,
LumenCenter-Italy), bath furnishings (Moab80)
- research and consultancy projects for the development
of design concepts, materials and products for Italian and
foreign companies.
- interior design for stores, showrooms, and fair stands.
Since 2001 he is Art Director at Cierre Accessories,
company that produces flatware and table accessories. In
1992 he creates Warli, a collection of contemporary rugs
made in India and Nepal with traditional wool and plant
fibers weaving.
Domus Academy for me is a modern Myth where Naiveness

awe Complexity (and viceversa) and Rationality embraces
Poetics (and viceversa). The Quest for Beauty in its deepest
sense (il Bello).
Domus Academy was my first home in Milan. It opened the

doors and the international visions of design but most of all it
was a multi-disciplinary, anti-ethical, corrosive and concrete
laboratory of ideas to which I always go back.
Volver
Warli, 2010
PAG. 32
Regolo
Vanalextra, 2012
PAG. 17
85
Dante Donegani
Niko Koronis
Giovanni Lauda
Dante Donegani was born in Pinzolo

(Trento) in 1957. He took his degree in
Architecture at Florence University in
1983. From 1987 to 1990 he worked
for Corporate Identity department
in Olivetti. Since 1993 he is Director
of the Design Master in Domus
Academy, Milan. He has designed
interior design projects for private
houses and stores, various trade
fairs, showrooms and expositions. In
addition, he has designed products
for several companies, among which
Memphis, Stildomus, Isuzu, Radice,
Rotaliana, Viceversa, Luceplan
and Edra. He has realized several
exhibitions projects and settings such
as Michelangelo Architetto, at Casa
Buonarroti in Florence; Mondrian
e De Stijl at Fondazioni Cini in
Venice, Piero della Francesca at
San Sepolcro. His projects have
been awarded by major architectural
contests, such as Manhattan
Waterfront New York 1988 (1 prize),
Berlin wall, Berlin 1987 (1 prize)
both in collaboration with A.Branzi; A
square with a monument Kejhanna
Japan, 1991(2prize). Since 1993 he
has opened D&L Associated, with
Giovanni Lauda. They have worked
together in different projects of design:
setting up of art exhibitions, tradefairs and showrooms. They are also
responsible for art direction of some
furniture industries, both in Italy and
abroad. In 2001 they directedthe
house section of the exhibition Italia
e Giappone-Design come stile di
vita, held in Kobe and Yokohama
by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. The
chaise longue Passpartout produced
by Edra is in the permanent collection
of the Museum of Modern Art of San
Francisco. In 2004 he exhibited at the
Venice Biennial Metamorphosis. He
gives lectures in various Universities in
different countries.
He is graduated in Architecture from

the Welsh School of Architecture,
where a year later he did his Master
degree in Environmental Design of
Buildings. He then moved to Milan,
where he attended Domus Academy
and obtained the Master Diploma in
Design with distinction. He spent a
year as tutor of the Master in Design,
after which he studied for his Phd in
Theory and History of Architecture
at the Architectural Association in
London. He has been a Fellow at
Central Saint Martins and a researcher
at the Alvar Aalto Foundation in
Helsinki. He has taught, lectured and
undertaken research in architecture,
product and urban design, and has
taken part in several exhibitions,
amongst which the Venice Biennial and
the Triennale di Milano.
Giovanni Lauda was born in Napoli

in 1956. Degree in Architecture.
From 1989 till 1992 was a member
of Morozzi & Partners design office,
working on product design and
corporate identity. In 1992 he opened
together with Dante Donegani D&L
Studio. They have been in charge
with the setting up of art exhibition,
trade-fairs and show rooms and
have designed products both for the
house and the office. Since 1994 he
is responsible of the course Design
culture in the Industrial Design
Master Course at Domus Academy.
Visiting professor at the Milano
Politecnico and at the Palermo
University. From 2002 till 2004
he was the columnist of Progetto
design for Interni magazine. He was
between the curators of the exhibition
Il design italiano dal 1964 al 1990,
which was held at the Triennale of
Milan in 1996 and in 2001 of the
exhibition Italy-Japan: Design as a
lifestyle in Yokohama and Kobe. In
2004 he exhibited the project La
casa liberata at the Venice Biennial
Metamorphosis .
Designers 86
Claudio Moderini
Elena Pacenti
Claudia Raimondo
Claudio Moderini is an interaction

design director and researcher, with
a background in architecture and
industrial design, founder and director
of the Master Program in Interaction
Design of Domus Academy. His main
competences range from creative
direction to envisioning and strategic
design, to the development of design
concepts for future scenarios and
interaction design solutions. His main
design and research interests range
from the introduction of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT)
in the everyday life and environment,
to its potentiality in supporting the
qualities of the social relations, to
the potentiality of interaction design
to innovate/transform the product
and service design processes. He has
been project leader and coordinator
for Domus Academy of more than
40 design projects, researches and
workshops both in conjunction with
international companies such as
Canon, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Nokia,
Motorola, Pioneer, Samsung, TDK
and within EU research initiatives.
He has lectured and held design
seminars at Politecnico di Milano,
Royal College of Art, University of
Siena, University of Milano Bicocca,
FUKUI Prefecture in Japan, Shie Chien
University Taipei, NTUT Taipei, Hong
Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong
Polytechnic, Kookmin University Seoul,
MIT Boston, Bilgi University Istanbul,
Tonji University Shanghai, Universidad
Major Santiago del Chile and Toluca
Tech Mexico, focusing on interactive
design, envisioning and strategic
design. Specialties: Conceptual and
Strategic Design, Interaction Design,
Design Research, Free Style Thinking.
Graduated in Architecture and PhD in

Industrial Design, Elena Pacenti deals
with the design of services, design
of service interfaces and design of
new media for everyday use. She is
the Director of the Master in Service
and Experience Design of domus
Academy. From 2003 to 2009 she
has been director of Domus Academy
Research Center. She started working
at Domus Academy in 1997 as part
of the Domus Academy Research
Center (DARC), where she has been
coordinating research projects in the
area of design innovation. As service
and interaction designer at DARC, she
developed research projects for the
European Union and design advice for
governmental and private agencies
in Italy. From 1998 to 2005 she has
been Contract Professor at the Faculty
of Industrial Design at Politecnico di
Milano, where she teaches interaction
and service design.
She has participated as lecturer in
several national and international
conferences such as: Info-Eco Door of Perception 3, Amsterdam,
1996; Gerontechnology, Simposium
Internazionale, Helsinky, 1997;
Tecnologie per la Cooperazione,
Convegno Nazionale AIF, Rimini, 1999;
New Media Visions, Domus Academy,
1999/2000; Web Experiences, Domus
Academy, 2000; i3 AC2000 (Icubed
Annual Conference), Jonkoping
2000, HKDC 2007, Service Design
Conference, SDN, Amsterdam 2008,
Northern Service Design Conference,
AHO, Oslo, 2009, SDN Conference
Berlin, 2010.
Claudia Raimondo is an architect with

a PHD in Industrial Design, Venetian,
lives and works in Milan. She has been
a professor at the Architecture School
and the Design School at Politecnico di
Milano, at the Accademia di Belle Arti
di Brera and international schools such
as ENSCI Les Atelier di Parigi among
others. Since 1993 she has been the
project leader of the Master in Design
at Domus Academy, among which:
1993, Master The Native Office with
Clino Castelli; 1996, Multiply surfaces
with Aldo Mondino; 1998, Superply
with Antonio Petrillo; 1999, Ceramica
Sapiens with gruppo Sargadelos; 2000,
Ambienti fototattici, materiali e luce;
2001, Microambienti trasversali with
SEAT; 2002, Slightly Domestic with
3M; 2004, Tiles of Italy. Exercise in
Architecture with Assopiastrelle; 2005,
No tiling please with Gruppo Ceramico
Vietrese; 2007, Healing Habitat with
Policlinico S. Orsola di Bologna; 2008,
Crystallized with Swarovsky; 2009,
Changing surfaces; 2010, It Happens;
2011, Deconstruct with Leroi Merlin;
2012, White space; 2012, Ri-Bayflex
with Bayer Material Science.
87
Special thanks to all the companies supporting Lost in translation

Alessi
Gaia & Gino
Poliform
Alessi lux | foreverlamp
Ganda Blasco
Porro
Artemide
Joseph Joseph
Radice
BeachThingy
Kikkerland
Ravarini Castoldi
Bosa
Knoll
Rosenthal
Brix
Lacie
Rosti mepal
Busso
Lipton
Rotaliana
Campeggi
Luceplan
Seiko
Castelli
Lumen Center Italia
Silhouette
Danese
Marsotto edizioni
Simas
Dedon
Metalarte
Skitsch
Desalto
Moroso
Solarbottle.org
Diamantini & Domeniconi
Motorola
Swatch
Domodinamica
Nava Design
Vanalextra
Driade
NonSoloFerro
Varaschin
Edra
Oluce
Visere
Enorme
Oud
Vitra
Escudama
OWO
Warli
Fontana arte
Pandora design
Whirlpool
Foscarini
Plugg
Xo
Domus Academy
Lost in translation
CEO
Marc Ledermann
Curators
Dante Donegani, Elena Pacenti
Dean
Alberto Bonisoli
Curators of the thematic sections

Niko Koronis, Giovanni Lauda, Claudio Moderini,
Claudia Raimondo
Executive Director Marketing and Enrollment

Paddy Jansen
Student Services and Industry Relations Director
Brunello Morelli
CFO
Ronald Voordendag
Marketing Communications Manager
Sabrina Di Pietrantonio
Exhibition coordination
Angela Ambrogio, Mara Ribone, Chiara Vaghi
Catalogue coordination
Mara Ribone
Exhibition design
Dante Donegani, Federica Cevasco, Filippo Nichetti
Catalogue graphic design
Francesca Valad
Exhibition graphic design
Francesca Valad, Marcella Foschi
Translation
Michela Marini
Press Office
SEC Relazioni Pubbliche e Istituzionali
Domus Academy joined the Laureate International Universities

network in 2009. Laureate is a trusted global leader in providing
access to high-quality, innovative institutions of higher education.
www.laureate.net

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Letter to Maria Grazia Mazzocchi

Milan, April 2012

This statement describes very well the design teaching

One of the very early catch phrases after the Academy

Ik-Seo Choi. Project

We are celebrating the Thirtieth anniversary of Domus Academy. In these

The didactic researches

Donegani & Lauda,

Jae Kyu Lee, Radice,

Mario Cananzi and

Kuang Ting Hsiao,

Left page from top to

A crysis of identities: all of these

was a project integrating architecture and landscape architecture, structural

Right page top:

Jae kyu Lee,

Right page bottom

Nick Bewick and

Kuno Prey, Rosti

Right page bottom

Juan Carlos Viso,

Ran Lerner, Joseph

by Ran Lerner for Joseph Joseph are two elements

Right page top:

Mercedes Jan Ruiz,

Larry Laske, OWO

interpretations of a new idea of wellbeing, multifunctional objects with an

Andrea Branzi, La Quarta Metropoli, Domus Academy Edizioni ,1990

Medium 2 - I semilavorati dellabitare (Semi-finished products of living).

Personal weight scale

Planning the earth

Project leaders Isao

Defne Koz, Alessi,

Defne Koz, Lipton,

Random Fork, Knife,

(...) one that

Saje: Aleph, Waw, Ya

Kuno Prey, Alessi,

Paolo Zani, Warli,

Defne Koz, Foscarini

obsessed with forms destitute of real meanings. Against

Defne Koz, Foscarini,

Omer Unal, OUD,

The projects in this section

Left page top:

Philippe Casens with

Left page bottom:

1 - Materials and Technologies

Francisco Gomez Paz

Kuno Prey, Danese,

Right page top:

Terri Pecora, Simas,

Past and present

Shinobu Ito, Nava

Left page top:

Left page bottom:

Omer Unal, self

Defne Koz, Vitra,

Marco Susani, Mario

Il metro della salute

Project leaders: Ezio

They are then