Daniel Libeskind at Milan Design Week

Against the backdrop of Milan Design Week, Biesse Group, Fiam Italia and Enaip organised a round table to examine excellent examples of creativity, technology, craftsmanship and training. After Antonio Bernasconi (Director of Enaip Lombardy) opened the discussion, Raphaël Prati (Marketing and Communications Director for Biesse Group) introduced Daniel Libeskind, an architect of international acclaim, who stressed the beneficial role of technology in creativity, hailing it as an essential element in creating without limits and manufacturing any object dreamt up by a designer’s fertile mind, on a large scale..

 

In this respect, Vittorio Livi (Chairman of Fiam Italia), “an enlightened master glassmaker”, proudly told the audience his story, including how he managed to combine the craftsmanship of a  master glassmaker with industrial processes. The vision of a dream, the art of in-depth know-how gained from years of work on the floor, as he likes to point out – or in other words, to have started from nothing, and, flanked by a good teacher who laid the foundations in training, to one day go on to create the world’s first furniture in curved glass. Livi then handed over to another illustrious Pesaro native, Giancarlo Selci (Founder of Biesse Group), presenting him as visionary creator of technological solutions, of machines that have allowed us to create design objects, producing high-quality pieces with unprecedented production times. Flints confirmed that the Group’s technologies and software products are designed to be at the service of those who work with glass and wood across the world, simplifying tasks for the operator and rendering numerical control machines accessible to a non-specialist audience, allowing customers to produce more in less time.

 

Paolo Molteni (Cantù Made Italia), who designed and manufactured the “K14 kitchen-sculpture shown inside the Colonnade, talked about craftsmanship in the field of wood furniture, focusing on the concept of “replicability” of a work of design. A concept that recalls a thought of Bruno Munari. Without setting the artist against the designer, but rather exalting both of them, he maintained that “the dream of the artist is that of getting into a museum, the dream of a designer is that of getting into the neighbourhood market”. This implies the need to produce more whilst reducing costs, guaranteeing quality and replicability to the market, thanks to technological innovation.

 

Valentina Aprea (Councillor for Education, Training and Employment for the Lombardy Region) and Paola Vacchina (President of Enaip and FORMA, the national association of vocational training bodies) then took the floor, stressing how vocational training is important for providing qualified services to train young people and to find these young people job placements, to train adults, to support people who are having trouble problem finding a job, and to promote the development of organisations and enterprises – once again through training. Also present at the round table was Luca Delfinetti (Councillor for Economic Activities in the Cantù region), who confirmed the next edition of the Cantù and On festival of wood in September. Luigi Bobba (Under-secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy) reminded those present of that the government, among other acts, has expressed the will to provide concrete support to uniting the skills possessed by young people and the skills required by the production system.

 

On closing a round table that had been humming with stories and future plans with regard to design and technology, Raphael Prati referred to the evidence gathered, emphasizing the value of a synergy between worlds that at first sight may seem far apart. The network connecting design, craftsmanship, technology and training can create a virtuous circle that enhances creativity and offers actual growth opportunities to the young and to companies that are capable of seizing the advantages of the digital manufacturing era – opportunities that are already realities in two design and furniture excellence districts, such as those of Cantù and Pesaro, so well-represented at the round table.

 

Following the meeting, 50 young aspiring chefs from Enaip demonstrated the quality of their vocational training by staging a dinner and drinks party, with exciting interpretations of traditional local products at tasting corners dotted around the venue, and the presentation of a menu linked to the Expo 2015 clusters.